Breakfast on Pluto
by DerbyGigs
Summary: Sora's life had taken a downward spiral until he met a somewhat troublesome 'genie' that offers him a chance to set things right. Turns out things aren't as simple as he'd anticipated, but then, they rarely were when it came to Riku. Sora/Riku Aku/Roku
1. Against All Odds

**Author's Note: **Just a relatively light-hearted fic about misunderstandings and second chances.

The song this chapter was inspired by is '_Against All Odds_', by The Postal Service.

Slight **warning**: some language.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

Against All Odds

So take a look at me now  
_________—t_here's just an empty space_______—_  
There's nothing left here to remind me  
_________—_just the memory of your face_______—_  
So take a look at me now  
_________—_there's just an empty space_______—_  
You coming back to me is against the odds  
_and that's what I've got to face._

* * *

Feeling nostalgic, Sora stood at the water's edge, the waves brushing his bare feet in the evening sun, and stared out to the horizon. He would do this often in the past, searching the horizon for something, yearning for adventure and enlightenment, looking for a meaning in life. But even now, he stood there feeling the same as he had then - incomplete.

It wasn't as though he was dissatisfied in his life, it'd been rather fulfilling. Sure, he could've done better at school, and sometimes money had been tight, but he figured he had everything anyone really needed in life; immaterial things: a loving wife, a great kid, a good brother…

His best friend.

He'd hit a dead end in life, and as the sunset cast hues of pink, purple and orange in the sky he felt decidedly worn. He took a leisurely stroll down the beach, and looked towards Riku's majestic house, surprised to notice that, just beyond those translucent white curtains, Riku was looking back at him. Sora made a point of masking the sadness on his face, abruptly turning away from Riku's forlorn gaze. Looking at this 'new' Riku right now would only prove to dampen his mood further.

Now facing the ocean, Sora noticed something a short distance away glittering on the surface of the water, he watched with a sort of rapt fascination as it bobbed up and down a few times, the gentle waves pushing it towards the shore, in his direction. He'd never been a patient person, so rather than wait for it to drift ashore he waded into the water and retrieved it. Sora smiled at the plain glass bottle in his palm, it had accumulated a lot of mud and sand on it from the seabed. As children, they had been told that if you sent a bottled wish off and it returned to you, it meant that your wish had been granted.

He imagined that one of the local children had it sent off; it was all very nostalgic, because he and Kairi used to do the same as a youngsters.

Riku hadn't though.

He'd said it was '_kid's stuff_'.

* * *

All his life Sora had lived to please other people and his outlook on life was simple.

Black and white.

Good and bad.

It included no shades of grey.

He had the ability to just follow his heart, to live in the present with no fears for the future. If something didn't agree with his moral, idealistic code Sora would stop at nothing to correct it (even if it didn't _always_ agree with other people's boundaries). It was this trait that had defined Sora, granting him a unique selflessness completely free of pretension.

All his life Sora had lived to please other people. But it had always come at a cost.

Most recently? His latest job.

It was all rather embarrassing, this current situation, but he knew that sometimes you had to put your pride aside and suck it up.

So here he was on the threshold of Riku's ostentatious home, _again_. Sora was baffled as to why Riku needed such large accommodation, it wasn't as though he lived with anyone and by nature Riku wasn't particularly materialistic. In fact, the reason why Riku chose to _be_ a bachelor escaped him, since he'd always been fairly popular.

Riku greeted him at the doorstep; Sora felt his trademark sheepish grin find a way to his face as his hand nervously scratched at the back of his neck.

"So, Kairi called you, huh?"

"Looks like it."

"Just so you know it wasn't my fault this time - I'll pay you back every penny as soon as I get a new job, I promise!"

Riku let out a heavy sigh. "You don't have to pay me back, Sora, you never had to." The words were like an old friend to Riku now, familiar with use over the years. He didn't know why he bothered saying them anymore, Sora had never, would never, heed them. "You can't fight every injustice in this world, no matter how badly you want to."

"Are you calling me a martyr?" Sora asked blithely, chuckling for the first time at the idea.

Riku's eyes became distant even though they were gazing directly at Sora. "Being a martyr is nothing to boast about. It'll be a lonely road ahead of you if that's the route you take."

"Do you know this from personal experience?" Sora asked curiously.

"I know enough."

Riku's house wasn't very much like Sora's, because that's exactly what it was – a house, not a home. It was a large, fancy house on the furthest outskirts of the Islands with a great view of the beach and small town below. People looking at it from outside would always feel envious of its beauty, but the inside always made you feel distinctly uncomfortable. The abundance of unused rooms, which were clean to the point of neurosis, made the house particularly devoid of human life. Sora would try to spend as much time as possible visiting, because he hated the thought of Riku being stuck in suffocating silence, but sometimes he felt it wasn't enough.

Sora didn't understand where it had all gone wrong for Riku, all he knew was that he had entered a premature mid-life crisis that seemed determined to last the rest of his life. While, Riku had always been quiet he had never been anti-social, but now he seemed to bend over backwards to avoid company; and as hard as he tried, he couldn't be there for Riku all the time. Riku wouldn't let him help with whatever personal crisis he was going through, didn't _trust_ him to help.

And the knowledge killed him.

It was awkward, sitting with Riku in complete silence, too nervous to say anything because he just _knew_ that he would brush him off wordlessly. This Riku was a Riku who never joked, or insulted, or sparred. Just sulked around, never saying anything. Part of him wanted to _throttle_ Riku_______—_

...but even more so, he wanted to see his eyes full of _life_ again.

"Don't you ever want to open up to anyone?"

"I do." Riku answered off-hand. Sora gaped, put off by the answer. He hadn't expected a response at at all. "I open to many people through my writing. Sometimes writing is easier than talking. Secrets and fears seem safer on paper, and I have plenty of each..."

Riku was a best-selling author, but Sora had never really liked his books, he felt his friend wasted his talent on those tales of unrequited love and tragedy. The old Riku, the Riku he knew, would smirk and mock him playfully, whenever Sora had mentioned this. This 'new' Riku, however, with his doormat personality would respond '_Life doesn't end up sunshine and rainbows for everyone'_ or something equally bitter.

"Look, Riku, I don't…." He hesitated. "You're not alone - I don't want you to feel alone."

Sora shook his head vaguely, not knowing what to say.

"I… just don't."

Riku flicked several loose strands of hair from his eyes and stared at Sora almost… resentfully. "Is this another one of your righteous crusades? Aren't we a little old for this?"

Sora bit the side of his lip and let his eyes wander across Riku's face, studying the morose expression he found there. Riku had led him into the study, where he sat at his expensive mahogany desk searching for his cheque book. Sora idly noted how similar he looked to his father all these years down the line. The same stern expression and no nonsense attitude made him almost an exact replica of Sephiroth.

He wondered how Riku would feel if he told him that.

Riku laced his fingers, resting his forehead on them. "...Why…?" It was only one word, and yet it summed up all that he wanted out of a question, all that he had to ask of the situation he was in. Why this? Why here, why now? Why me? What had he ever done to deserve this life? Why? Why, why, why…?

_Why me…?_

He stared at Sora.

_Why you…?_

Sora thought about for a few seconds. He'd never really considered the reasons for his reckless actions, his motivation to make others happy, he just did what he thought was right, and no matter the cost it was always worth it. "I don't know. Maybe because… I want to fight against what people say can't be fought against? Maybe because I think that it's never too late to get what you want, to be happy."

Riku looked up. His eyes were dark. Cold. Brooding. "Even now you're so naïve, even now, _after all this time_, you're so _blind_. You understand _nothing_!" It was a cruel statement. Mocking. Riku's words were barbed, but it wasn't entirely clear to Sora if the hate in them was directed at him or_______—_

"I know enough," Sora responded confidently, returning Riku's earlier words, "I would know more if you let me. I could understand more, if you let me."

Riku's eyes flickered downward for a moment, but lifted his gaze almost instantly, expression wiped clean until all that remained was an opaque, meticulous ice. To Sora, this was so much worse than yelling. At least with a choleric reaction, the person more or less expresses that you are worthy to receive their honest feelings and thoughts. However, this cool, unfriendly gaze, was rather something bestowed upon one considered completely worthless, or someone so unspeakably _different_ that you could hardly believe you were both human. When Riku looked at him this way, Sora felt a chasm of separation between them.

"More?" Riku walked forward, the muscles in his face seeming more taut than usual, as if he was straining to keep his distaste in line with his stoic mannerisms. His search for the chequebook was long forgotten. "What _more_ do you want to know?"

"Whatever you'll let me. What's so wrong with that? We're friends. Why do you open up through books, to thousands of strangers, and not your best friend? Why can't I support you like that?" Sora besieged, eyes shifting imploringly, desperate for Riku to understand. It hurt to say the words and bare himself to such extent when Riku wasn't giving an inch. He felt he had to retain _some_ dignity, he didn't think it was fair to tell Riku how he felt, to leave such a vulnerable opening, so he flashed a smile, hoping that it didn't look as forced as it felt.

Riku glanced at Sora from the corners of glaring eyes and there _it_ was. He had that stupid _grin_ on his face, just like always. What reason did he have to smile? Any normal human being would've been offended by such open hostility. But then... Sora _wasn't_ normal. He had always been different. It was that optimism, that tangible energy that surrounded him, that iron will to succeed despite all odds...

It was all in that smile of his.

_______—_and to have him so _close_ and yet so_ far_...

Riku sighed contemptuously and turned away from Sora, but not before giving the brunet a look he could not interpret. Sora watched him for a while longer, trying to read him.

_Damn it…what was that supposed to have meant?_

"Very well, have it your way." Riku's voice called his attention, it surprised him, with the extent of its sullenness, its tired air. "I remember that once a friend told me that that you can never lose by loving, only by holding back..." He was taking the key off of the chain around his neck. He used it to open a drawer on the other side of the desk, pulling out a thick, worn-looking book. A book hidden could only be one thing.

Was that a diary?

_How girly!_

_"_I really… wish I'd listened, back then..." He placed the book in Sora's hands. "This is a journal. This one book covers our time in highschool. If you really want to know more – understand - read it, make your conclusions, and then come back here. But remember, whatever you discover, you _asked_ for this." The words were pronounced slowly, baring a dark, almost foreboding weight.

The brunet looked at Riku again with a question in his eyes.

_I don't know why you've turned this into a battle but…_

"I'm not giving up, and I'm not backing down."

…_I can't let you win._

It felt good to say those words, and even better to see Riku drop his standard frown, surprise and confusion knotting his brows together. Sora nearly smiled at the familiar expression, until it disappeared, taking his smile with it.

They stared at one another. It was weird to have come to this one spot of motionlessness, this one moment of mutual silence after so much brooding and so many arguments, even if they were only waged with quiet passive-aggressive movements.

Riku's eyes clouded. He was entirely unreadable now. "You act as if you're certain you can. I highly doubt that."

Sora didn't flinch in the least. "I know. Which is exactly why I have to do it."

_I have to prove you wrong just like I prove everyone else wrong._

_No matter what._

* * *

_Well that was a disaster._ Sora thought bitterly. _I want... compensation. I want reparations! I want the Rhineland! __It's going to be 1919 all over again._ _Fuck the inevitable backlash._

When he finally reached his home Sora wasn't at all surprised to find his twin sat at his coffee table, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"Fired _again_, Sora? Maybe it's the working world's way of telling you to retire!"

"Roxas... can I ask why it is that you show up at the most inopportune moments of my life?" _Other than to gloat?_

Roxas' smile got even wider, rivalling the sort Sora usually sported. "Because I'm just bursting with brotherly affection and I'm here to offer my shoulder for you to cry on, should you need one."

_Sadist. _"I appreciate the sentiment, laced with sarcasm as it is. How did you find out so soon, anyway?"

"Your wife. Kairi told me the story of how she was _forced_ to phone Riku on your stubborn behalf to ask for money to pay for the damages you caused, and from whom you obviously just got back from crawling to with your tail between your legs." His eyes watered with mirth as he laughed, obviously enjoying his brother's misfortune, "Well, that and the fact that it was broadcast on the local news in Twilight Town." Sora paled at that.

Twilight Town wasn't even in the same county.

Oh God, had this been broadcast nationally? Would he ever get a job again? Had Riku seen it? Would he ever get his dignity back?

_Had Riku seen it?_

As Sora's mind ran through the implications Roxas' laughter had died down and after demanding Sora serve him coffee began to make small talk.

"Honestly, where does Riku find the strength to put up with you?"

Sora went about the task of making himself and his guest a cup of coffee; maneuvering about the cramped kitchen, he answered with a distracted: "Kairi has always had a way with Riku. He'll do anything for her, even spare this money for the likes of me."

Roxas' expression morphed into what Sora interpreted as disbelief.

"Sora, you're kidding me, right?"

Sora's confused gaze met his brother's skeptical eyes. "What do I have to kid about, Roxas?"

His response caused Roxas to put his head in his hands, emitting a low groan. Sora heard him mutter but couldn't distinguish the words - his hearing wasn't what it used to be.

"Has anyone ever told you how ridiculously naïve you are? I just mean stop showing how obsessed you are with him."

Sora frowned. "I'm not _obsessed_."

"I just think you should let _him_ come to _you_ for a change." Roxas continued smoothly. Then he noticed the book he carried and inquired. Sora explained, relaying the conversation he'd had with Riku.

"The book is from highschool, you say?" Sora confirmed, he didn't understand the significance of highschool in Riku's self-induced isolation but the thoughtful tone in which Roxas had asked implied his brother did.

"Well, it isn't really my place to tell," Roxas had replied in response to Sora's wheedling, "But it's not a great secret that Riku spent all of highschool mooning over someone." He took a wise sip of coffee. "He never did man up enough to confess, it's quite pathetic, really."

"What?" Sora screeched dramatically, "Why didn't I know about this?"

_(________—_even now, _after all this time_, you're so blind_______—_)

"You're blind to things that aren't spelt out to you, it's hardly _surprising_."

So he was blind, huh? Well he'd show Roxas. He'd figure it all by himself, he didn't need to ask him.

_(I open to many people through my writing)_

_(__________—_tales of unrequited love)

_(This one book covers our time in highschool)_

The metaphorical light bulb lit up in Sora's head.

Riku was suffering a lost love from highschool!

It was a logical conclusion, he rationalised, in the past Riku could cover it up with a string of short-term love affairs (after all, there had been many); now his life had slowed down and he was somewhat past his prime, he had begun to seek security, emotional stability. He had begun mourning his one true love and what could have been.

Sora felt the urge to wipe a tear of compassion from his eye - it was so beautiful, so poetic!

Sora felt a renewed vigour. He could help with this! He could bring the old Riku – _his Riku_ – back! All he required was information, and he knew the perfect source.

Roxas watched, slightly disturbed, as his brother turned to him and chortled, rubbing his hands together like a villain from an old black and white movie. He knew that face, and it usually meant trouble - he was concocting one of those 'save the world' schemes, _again_. It was time for preventative measures before things got out of hand. Honestly, you'd think he'd have grown up at least a little, but no. But maybe his childishness was what kept him so youthful - Sora was _ridiculously_ young-looking for his age.

"I'm not telling you who, before you ask, because it's not any of my business, or your business for that matter. Riku is a grown man, let him deal with his own problems."

So Roxas was going to be all secretive about it, eh?

Time to bring out the big guns.

Initiate the puppy dog eyes.

"I said _no_."

Sora's expression inched into a scowl. He didn't get what was so hush-hush about it.

* * *

Sora couldn't sleep that night, he tossed and he turned, couldn't stop brooding.

He couldn't _________—_wouldn't!_________—_ give up on Riku. He'd get his friend back to his old self. He'd fix this. He'd fix him.

But still, sometimes…

_(You can't fight every injustice in this world, no matter how badly you want to)_

Sora faltered.

He just... wished things could be like they were before.

* * *

He eventually gave up on sleeping, he knew that while his mind was still active he wouldn't be able to settle, so the only thing left was to stay up until he entered that stage of mind numbing sleep deprivation. The problem was getting there, because Sora's attention span was astonishingly short, making him a bit of a challenge to occupy.

As he fumbled his way downstairs he remembered the bottle he had picked up that morning.

He ran a basin of hot, bubbly water and carefully lowered the fragile bottle into it. Sora imagined his old mind was playing tricks on him when the bottle began to get progressively hotter, leaving his palms with an unpleasant tingle, even as the water became less than luke warm.

No, he definitely _wasn't_ imagining it.

Sora released the bottle with a startled hiss as it became unbearably hot, too hot to hold. But it had been too late - the heat from the bottle had transferred into his palms, the tingle erupted into a scolding surge of heat, spreading outwards, consuming his body, pooling around his insides.

___________—_Warm_________—_

His vision blurred as the heat splayed along his body, a strange frission that had nothing to do with old age knocked along his spine. Breathing became nothing but a rush of sound.

_I'm so hot… I can't breathe…_

Sora leaned against the counter behind him, trying to catch his breath, so flushed with heat his body felt numb.  
The sensation faded, after what seemed like an eternity, dying down to a dull ache, Sora spent a few minutes leaning on the counter trying to catch his balance, too occupied to notice the eerie grey smoke that had infiltrated the kitchen_._

"Sorry I'm late, traffic was a **BITCH**!"

The quiet of the room teetered on the edge and shattered. Sora released a high-pitched and flat-out out unmanly scream at the unexpected voice, swung in the direction of the intruder, but found that the room was just as empty as before.

"H-Hello?" He questioned quietly, gazing into the profound dark of his kitchen. Anxiously, he waited a couple of seconds with his fingers nestled tightly in his sweating palms. When no reply emerged, he sighed, calmed and prepared to have a little laugh at his own stupidity.

"Hello."

On instinct his hands flew up to shield his face from an imaginary onslaught.

"Ahhh! PLEASE DON'T CHOP ME!"

Sora heard a faint, impish snickering; he lowered his hands to see red hair and preternatural green irises that stood out in the contrast to the darkness of the now smokey room. A black cloak garbed a beanpole of a body, and despite the situation Sora felt the urge to offer him something to eat. The intruder looked no older than 18 - a boy, a kid caught mid-prank.

"Y-you think this is funny, young man?"

"Not at all!" the intruder denied, waving his hands in front of him as if it would authenticate his denial - hadn't he been laughing just a second ago? Of course he'd found it funny! "I wasn't laughin' at _you_. It was, uh, I just had a really funny thought right then!"

Sora scowled. The excuse sounded stupid even to _his_ ears.

The intruder took a step forward, and from the pre-dawn light that poured through the partially drawn curtains Sora could make out his face. It was a young face; with a long, aristocratic nose, thin lips and high cheekbones that had tear drop markings on them, beneath each eye. It would've been a pleasant face if not for the unnaturally incandescent green eyes and pointed teeth.

After enduring a few minutes of Sora gaping open-mouthed at him, the red-haired boy pulled a piece of paper out of _thin air_ in a puff of smoke and read it briefly.

"So, you got my Lamp?" The stranger prompted with an air of impatience.

Sora swore he felt his heart stop. He could comprehend and handle other situations, but this?

"_Well?_"

_What even was 'this'?_

Sora's mouth was dry from gaping, he swallowed, working moisture into his mouth to confront…_whatever_ was stood in his kitchen.

"What – who – are you?"

The addressed cocked his head to the side and smirked.

"How 'bout this…I answer a question and then you answer a question. It allows both of us to get to know each other in a fair and balanced manner, which is all well and good cuz we'll be workin' together for a while." Sora opened his mouth to speak but the _person?_ cut over him sharply, "Before you start pesterin' me with a limitless amount of questions, know two things. One: I will only answer what I choose to answer and two: you need to understand somethin' important."

Sora blinked.

"I will not tell you more than what you honestly _need _to know."

"What do you mean…?"Sora trailed off, his tongue no longer pliable enough to construct sentences. He scooted back, using the space as a sort of invisible wall of protection between him and this foreigner.

Looking endlessly pleased, the eccentric youth began. "I am a _Djinn_, specifically an _Efreet_, or _Ifrit_, or however you people choose to pronounce it these days. To make it crystal clear as for why I'm here, well, I'm your _qareen_. Ok, your turn: where's my Lamp?" The 'Djinn' said, tapping his foot impatiently as if Sora had the slightest clue what he was talking about.

Sora remained shock still; mystified, as though submerged in a pool so foggy that there was no amount of help that could yank him out again.

The other pinched at the bridge of his nose, a portrait of exasperation, "Ah Jeez, why do I always get stuck with the stupid ones? Y'know, the thing that summoned me here? – when you rubbed it it'd probably get real hot."

Sora's eyes widened. "You mean the bottle?"

The _Djinn_ hissed, as though greatly offended and grit through clenched teeth, "It's a **Lamp**!"

Sora hurriedly retrieved the lamp from the sink and tried to pawn it off on the Djinn, hoping to appease it so it would leave. Despite all it's whining the strange creature refused to so much as look at it until he'd dried it thoroughly, and even when it was sufficiently dry it refused to take it off his hands.

"Nuh-uh, Gramps, that belongs to you now, as…" there was a great amount of flourishing gestures to itself, "… do I."

Now this was just plain bizarre and Sora was terribly lost. It was time for a little diplomacy.

"I'm… a little confused, exactly what is a _qareen_?"

The odd youth seemed genuinely shocked at this.

"Don't you know anythin' about Djinn?" He shook his head in a flurry of blazing red hair, astonished. "What _are_ they teachin' kids at school, these days?"

Sora wanted to point out that he'd not been to school in a _very_ long time.

"We have loadsa names," The_ Djinn_ seemed to be choosing the most appropriate one as he mulled over them, "Does the word 'genie' mean anythin' to you?" At Sora's nod he continued, "Simply put, being a qareen just means I'm your own personal genie." It spread its long, thin arms out dramatically, "Here to grant your heart's desire!"

"How do I know you're the real deal? You don't even look like a genie."

"And exactly what is a genie _supposed_ to look like, oh enlightened one?"

"Well, you know, blue skin, twirly beard, Arabic clothing, ghost bottom half…"

"Oh, I'm sorry, was materialisin' out of thin air not enough 'proof' for you?"

Fair point.

"You're a sucky host, you know that? Not even offerin' a guy a seat." The Djinn evaporated in a cloud of smoke, and Sora watched in amazement as it drifted lazily across the kitchen and into the dining room where reconstructed figure of the Djinn sat on the chair. He was thrumming a bit.

"So? Time's a-wastin'. You ready to go back to highschool to save your precious Riku yet?"

Sora's eyes widened. "How do you know about Riku?"

The Djinn rolled his eyes, "Are you really this much of an idiot? I'm your _qareen_, I know a lot about you, it's my job. I know about Riku, and I know about your desire to help Riku, _your wish_ - I'm here to grant it." He clicked his fingers and that paper re-materialised and floated idly in the air between them.

"Look, I've got it written right here: you specifically wished that things could…" the Djinn formed quotation marks with his fingers, "…'_be like they used to be_.'"

"But I only thought it!" And yet the words still stood in front of him on that levitating piece of paper in black and white. It was almost as if they were mocking him.

"Still counts, guy."

Wait a minute...

_Why on Earth was he hesitating?_

This was the chance he'd been waiting for, a chance to set things right, a chance to find Riku true, lasting happiness and save him from the fate of a lonely, bitter old man!

It wasn't like he was leaving anything behind. Well sure, technically he'd be leaving his family and the life he'd built since highschool but it wasn't like he couldn't build them again, make the same wonderful choices that led to his current life, relive all his best memories. Maybe he could make a few choices that would improve his life along the way.

If he went back to highschool he'd get to see his _parents_ again, he'd be _young_ again, Riku would be _happy_ and the one that he knew, and he would keep him that way.

To Sora, it seemed like a win-win situation.

"Ok, I'm ready."

His _qareen_ smiled, revealing those sharp, inhuman teeth. "A man of action, I respect that. Ok Gramps, it's all pretty simple. You can take one inanimate object with you - choose wisely. Don't even bother tryin' to hide things in socks, shoes or underpants - believe me when I say it's in your best interest to take only one item. With health and safety measures out of the way, when you're all set jus' hold the lamp and let me do all the hard work."

Sora considered what inanimate object he should take. He didn't have anything of particular sentimental value that he hadn't had back then, he'd have to take something useful, something that contained knowledge that he didn't have back then, aside from the wit (ha!) and perception (ha!) that a longer life had bestowed him.

_The journal!_

The Djinn seemed particularly amused at his choice.

"Is that a diary? A bit _girly_, if you ask me."

* * *

"So you're really, truly, without a doubt, unquestionably, undoubtedly, positively, assuredly, indubitably ready?"

"Absolutely."

"Oh, touché."

"Is this going to take long? I don't want Kairi waking up in the middle of this- "

"What do you take me for, some kind of amateur? I'm an _Ifrit_." He said this like it would actually _mean_ something to Sora.

"Ok, here we go. Remember, Gramps: do not let go of the Lamp."

The Lamp was getting hot and Sora could already feel the unpleasant tingling from where it made contact with his skin. He tried to focus on luminous green eyes as the heat travelled from the lamp to his body, scorching, burning to his very core. Everything was heavy and warm and he was distinctly aware of the warmth pulsing just behind his ears.

It was getting harder to focus, he felt like a floating, disembodied entity.

Sora's last second glimpse of the world is sideways, sliding as he falls, he's numb, he's floating, down and up and apart, even to the last moment where the sky goes white.

_He's melting_.

* * *

Sora awoke that morning in an unfamiliar (and yet, strangely _familiar_) room. It was a moderate sized room, with a single bed (where he currently lay) which would have had an wide, open floor space had it not been covered by an ocean of clothes. The owner's possessions had been thrown haphazardly in various parts of the room, and while it could never been called neat, it gave one the impression of organisation, albeit in a disorganised kind of way.  
The walls were plastered with posters of bands; Sora idly thought that they were in good taste, reflecting what was once his own favourite bands.

Sora shuffled into a sitting position and stretched sleepily, surprised when he didn't feel the routine pop between his old shoulderblades.

He left the room, groggily ramming himself into the threshold. The first sight that met him was the adjacent doorway identical to the one he stood in now, except for the sheets of paper stuck to it.

The paper on the door had '**Keep Out**' written on it in a flowing, elegant script.

Under, someone had scrawled '_Why?_' in red marker.

An arrow in black marker connected the 'Why' to some words further down the paper: "**I_ mean it, Sora_**."

In red marker underneath that: "_Sora? Who said Sora wrote this? And what are you doing in there?_"

In black beneath that, in words tall enough to cover what was left of the paper: "**_None of your business and keep out, SORA_**."

Someone had taped an extra sheet of paper to the first and filled it with red scrawl: "_Or what, you'll shoot me? Why won't you tell us what you're doing in there, Roxy? (Man, your security is good though.)_"

The black marker had had no room to answer on the extra piece of paper and its dignity would not accept having to tape on an additional sheet as well, so it had simply removed the '_Or what_,' and the first '_?_' from the red marker's previous sentences, underlined the result, and left it at that.

Fully awake now, Sora made a mad dash for the bathroom to confirm his suspicions and bravely faced the mirror.

Wide, cerulean blue eyes stared back at him, set in a heart-shaped face with a small nose and full mouth. He watched half-fascinated, half-horrified, as the _boy_ in the mirror imitated him, pulling on thick, messy brown locks of hair. His heart leap to his throat.

_That was... that boy was..._

He winced after a particularly hard pull. So did the boy.

_That was him!_

Someone outside drowsily tried to open the door, Sora jumped when a violent kick shook the frame.

"Sora! Get the hell out of the bathroom!"

A bitching Roxas?

Oh God.

He was _really_ back.

* * *

No prizes for guessing:

1) Who Riku was (is?) in love with.

2) Who the Genie is.


	2. Heart Attack

**Summary: **Sora's life had taken a downward spiral until he met a somewhat troublesome 'genie' that offers him a chance to set things right. Turns out things aren't as simple as he'd anticipated, but then, they rarely were when it came to Riku. (SoRi AkuRoku... and others I'm yet to decide on =p)

**Author's note**: Sorry for the crappy chapter but I hope you enjoy reading it all the same. This chapter's theme is "Heart Attack" by Faker.

**Warnings**: Slight language.

* * *

**Chapter 2**

Heart Attack

Sometimes if we don't go  
..._sometimes you don't know _  
You don't go, I don't go, I don't go, you don't go  
I've got your back  
_But you don't got mine_  
This heart attack...  
_Then I'm feeling fine_.

* * *

(Not a hint of grey hair.)

(Skin completely free of wrinkles or pigmentation.)

(Vertical posture.)

_He'd woken up 50 years younger this morning._

Sora shakily unlocked the bathroom door.

"About goddamn time!"

A tan hand accompanied the assault on his senses, thrust through the opening and gave a forceful shove. Sora landed on the floor in an unsightly tangle of gangly, teenage limbs. The owner of the offensive hand, a boy with dirty blond hair, stormed in scowling darkly and flounced over to the cabinet, grabbing a tub inside without so much as acknowledging him.

_His entire world had woken up 50 years younger this morning._

"What the hell are _you_ looking at?"

_This is all just a really weird dream. I'll wake up soon. This can't be real. Nope. Nuh-uh._

"Roxas?" He winced at the way his voice broke on the second syllable as though he was-

Oh wait.

He _was_ pubescent.

Supposedly.

He sat there on the bathroom floor watching dream-Roxas preen. Everything seemed so _surreal_.

"Is that… really you, Roxy?"

"Don't call me_ that_."

Sora's eyes curled into happy crescents before adopting the appropriate somber expression. Now, he _knew_ he should be grown up about this, he _knew_ that such actions were below his mental maturity. Then again….

_The temptation is… just too great…._

He really _wanted_ to.

Besides, he also figured that, currently being a teenager, partaking in old pastimes would be pretty much conducive to his age.

This was all a dream anyway.

"Oh Roxy, don't be like that," There was something comical about the way annoyance slit his eyes and wrinkled his brow.

"_Sora_." In the mornings, there was nothing more rewarding than that pained look of irritation.

It even beat coffee.

The best part about this situation was that moody, teenage dream-Roxas was four times more likely to implode.

"Rox-"

"Don't you dare."

"-anne."

"I'm warning you."

"You don't need to put on the red light…."

"Sora!"

"Rooooooooxanne!"

A twitch.

"You don't have to wear that dress tonight… "

The silent treatment. How _mature_._  
_

To his credit, dream-Roxas was holding out quite well until an impossible falsetto broke from Sora's lips, around which time he winced, causing his hand to make an unversed sweeping motion, leaving him with an unsightly cowlick in otherwise immaculately styled blond hair.

"Damn it, Sora!"

"Nyee hee hee."

Now he wasn't one for petty revenge, but….

Was losing his job so funny now, Roxas? Hmmm?

Fearing possible paralysis or the loss of limbs, Sora made a swift exit from the bathroom. It was unfortunate he hadn't been quick enough to avoid having a fair amount of mouthwash poured on him. He was fairly sure he now redefined the concept of _minty fresh_. Roxas never had been a morning person.

_It's so strange._

Dreams were vague and disjointed, yet this one was so… _precise_. There were even height markings on the kitchen doorframe. The latest inscription matched his current height: 15 years, 8 months and 23 days old.

Sora felt a melancholy smile touch his face -his father had always been militant when it came to detail; he imagined it came from being a member of SOLDIER. Sora amused himself in thinking his father had probably kicked himself at night for not knowing the minutes and seconds to add to the marking. On their 15th birthday Roxas had decided he was just_ too cooooo_l for everything associated with the Strife family name. Cloud was exempt, for some reason - Sora wasn't sure what made the patriarch _coooool _enough, by Roxas' standards.

Was it the Hayabusa?

The Ray Bans?

The complete and utter lack of facial expression?

Consumed by his thoughts, Sora failed to notice someone enter the room and playfully sneak behind him. Abruptly he was spun 180 degrees and enveloped in a tight hug, smothered in a generous bosom.

"Good morning darling!"

Sora pulled his eyes upward, spooked to see the slim woman with warm brown hair in a braid. She had large, luminous green eyes and wore a wide smile that looked just like... _his own_.

"Sora, honey! Are you all right? You look like you've seen a ghost!"

He wretched himself out of the grip and reeled backward, landing on the floor harshly for the second time that morning. Sora shuffled back, attempting to put as much distance between his... _dead mother_and himself.

"AAHHHHHH**!**"

The exact course of events that passed in the next few minutes escaped him, but Sora guessed it was something like this:

1) His mother responded with her own startled screaming. 2) Roxas ran down the stairs toward the commotion, spilling his coffee on the journey and scolding himself, which began his own vocal contribution. 3) The screaming attracted Pluto who came bounding in through the dog flap, barking hysterically. 4) Cloud G.I joe'd his way into the living room, pointing his .600 Nitro Express Magnum at the source of his wife's fright. 5) Sora's screaming started with renewed vigor at the latest development. 6) This started the cycle anew.

A familiar blackness infiltrated the edges of his vision as consciousness begin to fade. It could've been caused by the post-trauma of waking up 50 years younger, it could've been the reality of seeing his dead father, dead mother, dead dog and de-aged brother all in the same room; it could've been the gun aimed at his face.

It could've simply been too early in the morning.

_This is... really happening._

The world faded.

_This is real._

* * *

It was like he'd never grown up. He guessed that was because _technically_ he hadn't.

"I said I'm fine, Mom!"

"Honey, you fainted! I'd be an unfit mother if I let you go to school today."

"I didn't faint! I passed out! I don't faint."

A snort. "And exactly how did you come to that conclusion?"

"I work myself to the point of exhaustion and pass out_. Like a real man._ I didn't faint like some girl."

Eye roll. "Idiot. That makes no sense, you got out of bed an hour ago."

"Shut up, Roxas!"

"Roxas, don't antagonise your brother – he's in delicate health, he might faint again."

"_Mooooooooom_!"

"Excuse me. He might _pass out_ again."

"Don't encourage his idiocy, Aerith."

A defeated sigh. "Roxas, why do you insist on calling me by my name and not my title?"

"You want me to call you Mrs. Strife?"

"She meant 'mother', retard."

"It's called dry humour, _retard_."

"Where did I go wrong?"

"What _is_ dry humour anyway? Humour minus the saliva?"

"How can you be so _stupid_?"

"_It's called dry humour, retard_."

"You _did not_ just air quote."

"Uh-huh. And I'll do it again."

"Stop that."

"And again."

"Stop."

"Aaaaaand again."

"You make me _retch_."

"Cloud, are you heading by the supermarket today?"

"Hn."

"Can you get some milk, please? We're running out."

"Hn."

Ring-ring.

"Thank you, honey."

Ring-ring.

"Hello? You've reached the Strife residence – Oh hello Riku, would you like to speak to Sora? Just a minute, please. Sora! Sora!"

"Aaaaaaand again."

"ARGH! STOP!"

**Crash.**

Dysfunctional? His family?

"Now look what you did, idiot!"

"Me? This is all your fault, you wacko!"

Sigh. "Not another table…"

Never.

* * *

Sora walked from his house to his first day at Shermer Highschool. He whistled and skipped all the way because today was going to be a _good_ day. He walked through the glass doors of the large brick building and was amazed at how many people were already there. He took a crumpled up piece of paper out of a pocket in his shorts. He gave his schedule the once over and found himself doing a double take over two words. Did that say-

_Child Development?_

He blinked.

What self-respecting male did _Child Development_?

It was just his luck, really, Sora thought as he fidgeted at the reception, the one time he really _needed_ something and the lovely, grandma-ish secretary Mrs. Potts was on a leave of absence and had been replaced by the psychotic school counselor.

Larxene scared the living _crap_ out of Sora.

"Can I have a quick word, Larxene?"

"Zoom. Whoosh. There's two for you."

In his nervousness he felt the beginnings of an incessant ramble form in his throat.

"Look, I think there's been a mistake in my timetable I'm a guy so I can't _do_ Child Development because I don't even like kids in fact I think I'm allergic I break out in hives I swear and I've seen Supernanny and Nanny 911 so I know I'm not cut out for that shit I'll take anything even Advanced Algebra even though I'm too stupid for Advanced Algebra and I'd probably fail since I _still_ don't get that mc-squared joke and I really should because I'm a lot older than I look so you _have_ to help me get out of Child Development and into something anything else so I'd appreciate it if you'd be nice for once in your life and help me out!" Sora sucked in a mouthful of air and stared intently at his large yellow sneakers.

Larxene simply stared. "Are you quite finished?"

Sora mulled over his argument for a minute. "Yeah, that's about it."

"And what's the magic word?" Larxene ridiculed, condescendingly.

Ah, that was _easy_.

With confidence Sora responded, "Abracadabra!"

"Let's try this again, how do you _normally_ express your gratitude to somebody?"

"You want a _tip_? Is that ethical?"

Larxene's face twisted into such an ugly sneer that Sora took an instinctive step back. He did not like the murderous gleam in her ice blue eyes. For once, Sora was quick to realize he was in deep shit; he did the only thing he could in the situation while still preserving his manly dignity.

"Eh, heh heh," he laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck in mortification. "I… uh…" He made a great show of looking at his nonexistent watch. "Oh, look at the time!"

He turned tail and ran, ignoring the outraged cry behind him.

He raced into his form room, tossing his book bag on the floor by a nondescript school desk and hunched down tiredly, catching his breath. He felt more than a little winded after running up and down the stairs, through crowds of people, slipping on a puddle of an unknown detergent-smelling liquid and bumping into some seniors only to discover from a guy with a nasty looking facial scar that all 200 rooms were on the second floor.

Needless to say he felt like an idiot.

And to top it all off…

He just ran away from a_ girl.  
_  
Riku had better never find out about this. He'd never live it down.

Sora glanced about the room, recognising a few people immediately. Roxas sat off to the side of the room being _cooooool _with his headphones on and eyes shut, ignoring everyone and everything; Tidus, sat on the desk over, was enthralled in an issue of _Blitzball Weekly. _There was a group of girls sitting in a tight circle in the corner of the classroom. He only remembered two; Xion, the black-haired girl, his cousin, and Namine, the quiet blonde. They were talking about something, seemingly looking at his general area of the room. He looked behind him; then to the right, then to the left. There was no one else.

They were talking about _him_.

"Hey, Sora!" he heard one of them say, "Come here!"

Sora went obediently to the group of girls. Xion looked at him as though she planned to eat him alive, while Namine mumbled incoherently, a blush covering her face. Xion pointed a finger at him.

"You were at acting camp last summer weren't you?"

Eh? Was that the "character-building" experience that his mother had forced him to enroll on every summer?

"And you got to play Juliet, didn't you?"

_Probably._

"INSTEAD of _me_!"

He had no idea why Xion refused to like him when she positively _adored_ Roxas. It seemed to him that she would make a point of expressing her dislike of him. Xion opened her mouth as if to say more but she was interrupted by the opening of the door just as the bell rang. Sora returned to his seat and consulted the clock. School started at 9:00 am sharp. It was now 9:15, which meant that the teacher was fifteen minutes late.

How many teachers were late to their _own _classes?

The sound of a chair being pulled out signaled that someone had taken a seat beside him. The girls flocked like seagulls to the new arrival.

"Hey, Sora." His heart began to pound.

Sora recognized the voice as Riku's, and was momentarily taken aback. He didn't turn around straight away, almost expecting to see the _new_ Riku stood there in a cruel twist of fate, a bitter and withered shell of his former self. Instead, turquoise eyes had a light in them he hadn't seen in a _very_ long time, and the quiet smile on Riku's youthful face almost choked him. Immediately, Sora felt as though a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, inexplicitly elated.

_He had his friend back._

He felt a flame of determination ignite within him.

_He was going to keep him that way._

Riku blinked at Sora, who was staring at him with the intensity of a thousand watt bulb.

"What?"

"Nothing. It's just really good to see… _you_."

Sora's smile was so dazzling that Riku had to blink off the intensity of it.

* * *

The cogs of Sora's mind were churning. He needed _information_ if he was to keep Riku _Riku_. But he couldn't just _ask_, he had to be discreet, had to employ his tact, like it had never been employed before.

"Pssst! Riku!"

The addressed raised an eyebrow.

_Tact._

"What are your… uh… top five qualities in a partner?"

_Booyah! _He was all over tact like a fat kid on a cupcake_._

Riku's other eyebrow joined the first. Sora waited patiently for an answer, but Riku was uncharacteristically flustered, seemingly tongue-tied. Then it dawned on him.

_Riku was…._

… _shy?_

Tidus leaned over Riku's desk, interest peaked, and decided to give his view on the matter.

"Five qualities? That's easy. Number one, _bendy_."

"Unpredictable." Riku interjected.

"Number two, _shaved_."

"Must appreciate the genius of the Kinks."

"Number three, _slightly anorexic_."

"Expressive eyes."

"Four, _about_ _5% lesbian_."

"Should be …in touch with their masculine side."

"And finally, mustn't be _too_ smelly in the cellar." Sora couldn't withhold the snort of laughter at Tidus' vulgarity. Riku sent Tidus a digusted look and finished with: "Compassionate."

Sora's face drew into a thoughtful frown, piecing together his newly acquired information. He made a discreet note of his findings.

"Errrr…So what you've come up with is an unpredictable, yet compassionate, slightly masculine Kinks fan... with eyes?"

Riku smirked. "I know. It's an impossible dream."

Sora was just about to say something smart when the classroom door opened once again. A tall man with _pink_ hair smiled apologetically at the class. It was 9:35 am.

"OOOOKAAAAAY!" The man stood on his tip-toes at the front of the room. The sheer volume of his voice snapped Sora full to attention. The man merrily uncapped a board marker and began to write on the board.

"Hello everyone. My name is…" he finished doodling and motioned dramatically to the board, "Marluxia! You will all refer to me as _Mister_ Marluxia!"

Riku found himself leaning forward against his desk and blinking uncontrollably at the teacher's absurd handwriting, every single bubbly, red letter of his name was surrounded by a heart. There were doodles here and doodles there, all across the board. He felt like he had been removed from high school and put into a class of preschoolers. He glanced to his right and was happy to see that side of the room sharing a similar reaction. Then his eyes wandered to his left where he saw Sora smiling serenely, seemingly unphased.

Riku smirked.

_Idiot._

A rogue piece of silver hair dangled in front of his eyes and tickled his nose. Riku cursed softly as he tried to correct the rebellious strand of hair. He felt Selphie's eyes on him as he tried vainly to correct his hair, veering away from the stagnant mass of oestrogen.

He did a double take.

Was Selphie even _in_ this class?

He hadn't heard her name called at registration and come to think of it, he was pretty sure Kairi had said Selphie was in _her_ class...

Why? Why was she stalking him?

"Do you really like Miss Tilmitt that much, Mr. Secretan? Or are you one of those types who just stares a lot?" Riku fixed Marluxia with a cool stare, unflinching, willing him to spontaneously combust through the power of his colourful imagination. The last thing he needed was Selphie deluding herself.

Sora's lips had conducted that illuminating smile once more and Riku felt his heart melt to his knees. Then he frowned - it wasn't directed his way.

Sora was looking at _Selphie_.

Such was the paradox of Riku's situation that he almost smiled.

Almost.

_It seems that fate is not without a sense of irony..._

A torrid of jealously propelled Riku as he scowled viciously at Selphie until she retreated behind her homework diary.

He felt disgustingly good about it, too.

* * *

Sora scrawled the word '_Selphie'_ under possible suspects and reviewed his short, vague list.

Unpredictable? Selphie was _known_ for her mood swings.

Selphie was compassionate when it came to romance.

While Selphie wasn't exactly _masculine_, she was certainly no lady.

Selphie had been humming '_you really got me_' at lunch - definite Kinks fan.

Expressive eyes? Well, Selphie had… _big_ eyes. So, yeah. Check.

Everything was coming together so smoothly. It _had_ to be Selphie.

"Sora!" A tinkling, sweet voice called from behind.

"K-Kairi," Sora stammered, scrabbling to hide his notebook under the cafeteria table. Kairi bestowed him with a gentle smile, which he returned with a goofy grin.

"I pulled some strings. Congratulations, you're no longer enrolled on Child Development!" Sora thanked his lucky stars Kairi was the student body president.

She was the pampered daughter of a diplomat and an artist. Her eyes were deep amethyst and rimmed with dark eyelashes while her hair was a light strawberry-red. Kairi stood before him, twiddling her thumbs, a look of concern painted on her delicate features.

"Are you, ok? You've been acting a little… off, today. You keep forgetting things, where rooms are, names. Then you retreat to an isolated table at lunch. You! Of all people! If you have any problems, you can tell me, ok?"

Sora smiled sincerely. What he had always admired the most about Kairi was her kindness. She had always asked him about his day, how he was doing and while she did so her lips would compose a soft, bright smile that affirmed she actually _cared_; it wasn't just another reason to flaunt her perfect white teeth.

"Kairi, I'm fine, I promise." He flashed her a sincere grin and a thumbs up in confirmation, "By the way, what optional did you enroll me for?"

"Food technology."

His smile fell.

There was a _reason_ why the male population cringed at the mere _thought_ of Food Tech. A reason so traumatic he remembered it even now.

_The Apron._

Sora shuddered.

The greatest torture device known to man.

Sora threw up a little in his mouth every time he so much as glanced at it. It was almost impossibly effeminate, it was _hot pink, _there were frills, lace and flowers _everywhere_. It was the sort of monstrosity that made Barbie want to claw her eyes out and be glad of the loss, rather than look at it for an extended amount of time. It wasn't a mere blow to masculine pride to wear it, but the complete and utter eradication of _any_ sense of self-respect for the rest of one's natural life. Every year, their screwball teacher would allocate it exclusively to one of the males unfortunate enough to have been enrolled in Food Tech for the _entire_ year. There was no way of knowing if it would be _you_.

Sora gulped.

_Farewell, dignity._

Kairi adopted a slight pout, "Don't sulk, Sora. I'm doing Food Tech, too." The attempt to comfort only proved to evoke a defeated, almost mournful sigh from Sora - just another witness present for the premature demise of his self esteem.

"Stop being so dramatic. Riku is enrolled too." Kairi added. Upon noticing Sora perk up considerably her expression crumbled momentarily before her lips reaffirmed themselves into a weak smile.

"Is Selphie enrolled on Food Tech?"

"Huh? Selphie?" Kairi blinked, bemused. "Yes, I believe she is."

Sora rubbed his hands together and cackled.

_Excellent._

* * *

Sora drew the shower curtain open, and watched as the steam rushed forward, settling on the mirror until it was opaque. The nearest towel, a fluffy little peach number, landed snugly on his hips in moments.

A Happy Mondays CD that lay on a pile of dirty clothes, he inserted the disk into his stereo. He turned up the volume as '_Kinky Afro_' began to blast out, in order to signify he did not want to be disturbed, and not, as he tried to convince himself, to drown out the sound of his God-awful singing.

As Sora was pulling a black t-shirt over his head a surge of heat rippled through him, leaving white spots in his peripheral vision. He swayed a little on the spot, disorientated, and grabbed at his spinning head. Without looking up, he knew he wasn't the sole occupier of the room anymore.

"I'd suggest you keep the towel up, Gramps. You wouldn't want everyone to know you don't have a penis." Sora stared as he absorbed the meaning of the warped greeting. Flopped over the pillows of his bed like a lazy cat in a sunbeam was the _Djinn_, grinning cheekily at him, eyes crinkling with mirth at his own joke.

"What? You didn't think you'd be getting rid of me that easily, did you?"

Welllll…

Yeah, actually.

He had.

Sora ushered the redhead to turn his back while he put on some shorts.

"Are you decent? I'd hate to not see anything." The _Djinn_ chided.

The offense was unnecessary and after a tiring day Sora lacked his usual patience. "_Yes_, I'm decent. Do you _have_ to be like that?" He grit through clenched teeth, spinning abruptly he froze.

From the bedroom door, Roxas looked at Sora questioningly.

"Like _what_?"

"Th-this has a perfectly reasonable explanation, honest!" He stammered, eyes darting frantically between the _Djinn_ and his temperamental kin.

"Whatever," Roxas stated dismissively, "I just came in to ask if I left my Wild Shake Gatsby in here."

_Huh?_

Something about this was… off. Could it be the distinct lack of bloodcurdling screams as Roxas (foaming at the mouth) bludgeoned the unsuspecting Djinn with his skateboard? Or was it the absence of gunshots from his father's .600 Nitro Express Magnum?

Instead, there was an appreciative whistle from the _Djinn_. Sora's eyes flitted uneasily between the two, settling on Roxas, completely befuddled at his lack at response.

The Djinn offered a conceited grin."Oh, don't worry about him. People don't see or hear me, unless I want them to."

Ah, that would explain why Roxas hadn't collected those leering green eyes on the end of a toothpick yet.

"No, you didn't leave your 'Mild Take'-'

"Wild Shake."

"- girly hair cream-"

"Moving rubber!"

"-in my room."

Roxas raised a suspicious eyebrow that implied that he wasn't finished, but Sora tactfully ushered him out of the door with the promise to look for it after. He closed the door with a relieved sigh.

The _Djinn _had a perky look on his face, "Who was that?"

"Who, Roxas?" The _Djinn_ looked awfully eager as he nodded for some reason, "He's my brother. Twin brother."

"How _interesting_."

"What are you doing here, anyway?"

The _Djinn_ adopted a pose of mock-hurt, "Can't a concerned _qareen_ just check up on his charge now and again?" He reverted back to his lazy sprawl. "Guess I didn't explain myself too well before, but it's ma job to guide you, make sure you fulfill the wish I've been assigned to grant."

"You mean my wish."

"That's what I said."

"No you didn't, you said –"

The bedroom door swung open again, revealing Roxas on the other side pointing accusingly at him. "I knew you were up to something! I heard voices! What are you hiding?"

_Play it cool, Sora._

"What are you talking about? There's only the two of us here."

"Then who the hell is that?"

Roxas was staring directly at the _Djinn_.

Invisibility on!

Still there.

ON!

Nope. _Still_ there.

ONNNNNNNNN!

"Oh _him_?" Sora gave a sheepish laugh, stalling. "He's…" His eyes wondered the room, looking for a plausible answer. He caught sight of a Guns N' Roses poster over Roxas' shoulder.

"Axel Rose." Insert foot in mouth.

_Smooth. Reaaaal smooth, Sora._

"Axel… Rose?" Roxas' incredulous look broke from his usual _cooooo_l façade.

'_Axel_' gave a lazy wave and smiled from his place on the bed. Sora was surprised to see that previously sharp, pointed teeth were now replaced by regular human-looking ones, eyes had dimmed down to a more natural, yet still magnificent, shade of emerald green.

"Hey I'm Axel, a new friend of Sora's - I'm coaching him, he's tryin' to get on the Basketball team." Axel lied, face smooth and flawless. He lifted the arm from around his back. Sora could see he was holding something compact and purple. "This is what you were looking for, right? Gatsby? You're a man of good taste, I'm a fan myself - eat it all the time." He launched it across the room, a 1000-Watt smile on his face. Roxas caught it easily with one hand.

"…..thanks." Roxas made to exit the cluttered room, but not before fixing his brother with a suspicious stare that clearly said '_we'll talk about this later'_. Sora waited until he heard Roxas' footsteps fade as he trampled down the hallway.

"What the hell was that? You said he couldn't see you!"

"He caught me off guard - I wasn't concentratin'. It happens to the best of us." If he was bothered at all by this he didn't show it; in fact, Sora thought he looked pleased at the turn of events.

"And what happened to your teeth? And your eyes? And where did you get that hair stuff you gave Roxas, because it sure as hell wasn't there before!"

Axel rolled his eyes as though answering such questions was beneath him.

"I can look however I want to look, thought more human features would be less alarming. You humans sure are easily frightened," he snickered, recollecting in an exaggerated high-pitched voice, "_'Ahhh! Please don't chop me_!'"

Sora felt blood rush to his cheeks, made a disgruntled sound in this throat.

Axel's grin grew, "As for the wax, I conjured it," He sensed his charge was about to say something idiotic, "And no, not out of thin air – it doesn't work like that. Let's just say, that some poor little stock manager will be scratching their dear, baldin' head wonderin' why they're one short on the Gatsby delivery." A nasty little cackle.

Sora blinked. Did that indirectly make them …thieves?

"But what about… magic?"

Axel laughed, and not just a brief laugh – it was a bellowing hackle, as though he'd just heard the funniest thing.

Rude, much? You didn't see _him_ laughing when the guy said he was a _genie_.

When he was sufficiently calm, Axel adopted that monotonous drawl he used when explaining what he thought to be common sense. "You don't gain something from nothin', you have to give somethin' in return. To receive, somethin' of equal value must be lost. It's the universal law. Applies to you and applies to me. Well, not so much me anymore, so prepare to pay up at some point." He was in that lounging position again, examining his nails with false interest, "Guess I forgot to mention that."

Sora's eyes widened, "Forgot? _Forgot_? Don't you think that's just a little bit important?"

Shit, what was worth a tub of Gatsby? An ear? An eye? He was going to be an amputee all because of Roxas' stupid hair product!

"Gramps, don't worry about it. That was my treat. It's not like you actually asked for it. 'Least you know before you get too wish-happy. No foul, no harm, yeah?"

"What happens if you don't… pay up?"

Green eyes looked accusingly at him, "Hey! Will you stop sidetrackin' me? I'm a very busy guy – places to go, people to see, and here you are, wastin' my time with _mundane_ questions." Axel turned his palm outwards and a thick book appeared in his hand. "Here." He handed the book – _Riku's journal_ – to him."This is what I came to give you. Sorry it didn't arrive here with you, I'm a bit outta practice – funny story, really; it ended up in a dumpster a few towns away." At Sora's horrified look he added, "Could've been worse - the book might've arrived here and you in the dumpster."

The Djinn laughed at this concept.

Sora didn't.

"Well, that's all I want for now, be seein' you, partner."

Axel gave a mock-salute and evaporated into a grey mist that sailed through the open window, no trace of him was left in the room.

Great. Now, how was he going to explain _that_ to Roxas?

Then Sora realised.

Axel hadn't answered his question.

"Damn it!"

* * *

**Author's note:** T_T


	3. Bizarre Love Triangle

**Author's Note:** Ok. So this has been pretty much completed since I uploaded the last chapter but I had problems uploading it - I blame the Mac (Mac happy? I'm Mac bloody annoyed!) I'm quite pissed that I didn't give Riku enough showtime _again_. *Sigh*

This chapter's theme is "Bizarre Love Triangle" by New Order.

**Warnings: **LANGUAGE, _terrible_ humour.

* * *

**Chapter 3:**

Bizarre Love Triangle

Every time I think of you  
I feel shot right through with a bolt of blue  
It's no problem of mine  
But it's a problem, I find  
_—__Living a life that I can't leave behind__—  
_But that's the way that it goes  
And it's what nobody knows  
_—Every day my confusion grows—_  
Every time I see you falling  
I get down on my knees and pray  
I'm waiting for that final moment  
_—You say the words that I can't say—_

* * *

Sora started the week with The Plan - a tiered plot, a flawless theory (in Axel's words). The objective of The Plan was to survey the interaction dynamics between Riku and Selphie, whilst simultaneously improving his future prospects (something he'd failed to perceive in his youth because he was too busy living…. well, _life_).

Subsequently, the first step of The Plan was to improve his school attendance and punctuality. Beneficial to his education for obvious reasons, the school's unhealthy fixation with gossip also provided the perfect cover under which his interest in Riku's love life wouldn't be deemed odd, if not slightly fanatical.

The first part of The Plan (supposedly the easiest) became a stumbling block after a week or so, during which Sora discovered that being 15 was not as glorified as he'd remembered. For starters, mornings_hurt_. He had growing pains. He had a ridiculous amount of homework that he didn't understand because he hadn't been to school for over 50 years; and if that didn't demotivate him enough, it was_Blitzball season_ and Tidus had _VIP seats_ to see the Zanarkand Abes that fell, as luck would have it, on a school day. It had taken him a good 3 days to convince Tidus that, no, he _wasn't_ joking when he had politely declined the invitation on the grounds of his reformation. Needless to say, as soon as Tidus was out of sight his mouth had proceeded to form a mammoth quantity of curse words, some so novel they weren't even present in the dictionary yet.

VIP seats to see the _Zanarkand Abes_! _In_ Zanarkand!

Such was his dedication to The Plan.

After his third straight day in Math, his teacher almost had heart failure from seeing him there so often. Though his chemistry teacher avoided the coronary, and just looked at him as though he were an alien species. Once in a while, he would shoot edgy glances off to the windows, like he was ready to see a hidden camera crew there saying 'Gotcha! You thought Sora had _really_ become a model student!'

Maybe it was the softie in him, but Sora felt genuinely guilty about causing so much stress just because he decided to attend classes; then again he felt guilty about everything, from the pollution caused by Chinese industrialisation to not wearing some pairs of boxers as much as others.

_I'm sorry, stripey blue - you're just too tight._

He found Kairi and Tidus sat chatting amicably in the cafeteria, sat at the usual table.

"I can't believe you!" Kairi hissed over the table, "You're just playing with her feelings by spouting out false confessions of love! Rikku really, really likes you!"

Or maybe not so amicably.

Tidus rolled his eyes, "It's okay, _everyone_ says it. I say I love Häagen-Dazs and my broadband provider, and I like Rikku more than them…. in most respects."

"You can't just play around with her feelings like this!" Kairi exclaimed, outraged. She looked up at the sound of footsteps, her amethyst eyes blazing with indignation, but they softened when she saw Sora. Tidus sent him a grateful smile, somewhat relieved at the acquittal from the impending sermon.

"A new record- five days in a row! Very suspicious, Strife." Tidus jeered. Without breaking eye contact, Sora sat down in his reserved chair and folded his hands. "Hey, I gotta reform sometime, right?"

"Larxene called for you over the intercom this morning." Kairi inquired, "Is everything alright?"

"You're so _lucky_, man." Tidus crowed and Sora deflated a little. He certainly didn't _feel_ lucky today. "Larxene's a total fox!"

It flooded him gradually, the feeling, like he was stuck in a box steadily sinking to the bottom of the sea. "I am so _fucked_." He uttered weakly.

Kairi raised an inquisitive eyebrow, but it was Tidus that spoke up. "Ok, whatever. So yeah, Sora, back on topic: Have you ever told a girl you love them on a first date?"

Sora cast a long, wary gaze towards the cafeteria entrance, as though afraid someone was about to burst through unexpectantly, "Well, maybe once or twice, y'know, just to get things off to a good start." Kairi's face shifted from lighthearted to pensive in a matter of seconds and Sora swallowed hard. Whenever her soft violet eyes narrowed into that concentrated stare he knew that a longwinded speech was collecting on her lips.

"I mean no-oo. 'course not!" He blurted, "It… er…devalues it and… stuff."

"Maybe a bit." Tidus conceded, "But who _cares_? It works!"

"You are unbelievable." Kairi declared to the blond, aghast. Tidus took an extended lick on his dessert-laden spoon, looking utterly satisfied, "Heh. Nothing I haven't heard before." He stated smugly. Sora snickered at his friend's display of conceit, earning him a sharp, disapproving elbow in the ribs from Kairi.

"Hey, have either of you seen Riku today?" Sora asked, slouched in his chair.

"No, man." Tidus replied, releasing a sandwich from the confines of its cellophane wrapping. "But he better not skip out on Blitzball practice again."

Kairi turned to him and smiled that angelic smile that made adolescent boy's hearts flip in their chests. Sora thought he might have imagined the slightest hint of strain in it, because strain between Kairi and Riku, who had been best friends since the beginning of time, just _could not_ exist. There was no _reason_ for it to exist. It was simply incomprehensible.

"No, I didn't see him earlier. Is it anything I could help with?" She asked.

Yep. _Definitely_ imagined.

"Nah." Sora said, waving the subject off dismissively, "Just wondering, I guess." Well that meant no observation today. Sora proceeded to initiate the next step of The Plan.

"Kairi, what can you tell me about love?"

Kairi's knife, which had been deftly cutting her pizza, was suddenly threw off-course, missing its doughy target and hitting the plate with an unpleasant screech.

"Wh-what?" Kairi was still staring, flustered, and waving the cutlery around. He removed them before she hurt herself.

"I-" Kairi cleared her throat and suddenly her smile was brilliant and she looked at him with pure affection. Sora guessed she must be happy to see he'd decided to be interested in something other than Blitzball. "Oh Sora, I'm so glad you asked!" Kairi gushed. "What do you want to know?"

"Well..." Sora felt suddenly at a loss. "I read the book you lent me. It was very..." His lips twisted as he made a bid for diplomacy, "_entertaining_." It had been a typical teenage romance novel about three best friends locked in a sordid love triangle - he hardly thought it applicable to _his_ situation. "But I think that in real life people have less difficulty finding love."

Kairi seemed a little surprised, but then she seemed to understand. She toyed with a strand of silky red hair, coyly.

"There are many reasons why people fall in love, Sora..."

Damn he knew it wasn't going to be that easy.

Kairi had a class counsel meeting soon. She was so busy he couldn't monopolize her time by asking her to explain all the parameters of the 'love' issue. Considering how many books, songs, poems and movies centered on the subject, there was probably quite a lot to say. He had to be efficient.

"Can you give me one?" He asked.

Kairi looked at her manicured hands, somehow unable to meet his eyes. "Sometimes, when you've know someone for a long time...you're thrown together a lot, and end up spending a lot of time in each other's company. You get to know one another…" A blush was rising on the apples of her cheeks. Sora continued to nod attentively, "You learn to rely on him, on his presence, you get used to the way he thinks and acts, and that can often lead to...affection. Take, for example, Riku, me and y-"

An exaggerated gagging motion interrupted Kairi's spiel.

"That's the gayest thing I've ever heard." Tidus interjected.

The counter reply escalated Sora's otherwise innocent inquiry into a fully qualified squabble, but remainder of the argument eluded Sora. He had heard enough.

_Spending a lot of time together?_

That opened up possibilities.

* * *

"—the 23rd. I will not take it late – even _with _excused absences."

"What project?" Sora interjected as he sat up suddenly. His pencil rolled off his desk to the floor. A few people in the class laughed hesitantly before adopting the appropriate somber expression – such merriment was inherently forbidden in Sephiroth's classroom.

Sephiroth's eyes flashed irritably as they slowly turned to rest on his face. "The project," he seethed, plucking off the gold-framed pair of glasses he wore and rubbing the lens against the side of his neatly pressed, pinstriped trousers. "I was discussing with the _rest_ of the class while you were off in your own world,_ Strife."_ His surname was spat viciously, as if speaking it emitted a particularly foul taste.

Sora stared up at Sephiroth innocently.

"Because your defective mind did not absorb anything of what I said, and Lord knows I don't want to teach _you_ again in summer school, I'll repeat myself for your benefit. You will analysise the themes, motifs and symbols of—"

_Shit, what's he talking about? Nod. Look serious. I'm Di, he's Bashir._

Sephiroth narrowed his eyes as Sora began to tap a pencil against his desk distractedly. His eyes lazily scanned the room. For whatever reason, all the desks in the room had been put together in a circle. Supposedly, it made it easier for discussion; kind of like group therapy.

"Sora!" Kairi urgently hissed, attempting to gain his attention. Staring at his window, he watched transfixed as a flash from the reflection of a car sped by, people went about their daily business and a small red butterfly fluttered beyond his line of vision quickly. The tiny span of his view outside seemed to obey a different passage of time.

Bemusedly, Sora felt a succession of insistent pokes to his shoulder. Jarred out of his seasonal ponderings, he glanced away from the windows to see Kairi mouthing something he couldn't quite hear.

A rolled up piece of paper hit him square in the middle of his forehead.

Sephiroth stood before him, glaring in contempt. Those detached eyes that could not decide whether they were blue or green, elicited in Sora a great discomfort, reflecting to him an all-encompassing source of misery.

(_The same stern expression and no nonsense attitude made him almost an exact replica of….)_

The intimidating scowl deepened.

"Really, Strife," the teacher's thin white lips smirked, appearing like two slices of paper folded precisely into sharp corners. "I thought this year was going to be the year you _finally_ passed. You can't very well listen, stare out the window, and play your bothersome little drum solo all at the same time, can you?"

Sora's mouth muscles twitched with the effort to remain locked in place, under the desk his fingernails clawing the tender skin of his palm. He didn't mind being singled out, he could handle being scolded, but Sephiroth's scolding was more pointed and slick, it burrowed into the deepest part of him and made him cold all over.

"209." Deadpanned the wispy voice, with an insulting leer. The rubber-band ball that was Sora's clenched fist quivered with subdued fury. Opening his textbook to page 209, funny words galloped about, mocking him with their unpronounceable letters.

Out of the corner of his eye Sora could see Sephiroth's self-satisfied smirk.

_Asshole._

* * *

"What did he say to get you so pissed _this _time?"

Sora adopted an unnaturally slick, wispy voice and he spread his lips wide across his face until he appeared to be leering insultingly. "'I thought this year was going to be the year you finally passed. You can't very well listen, stare out the window, and play your bothersome little drum solo all at the same time, _can you?_ ' GAH!" He slammed his fist into a blameless locker. His face and voice resumed its normality. "He's such a dick!"

Tidus laughed sympathetically, "Glad _I_ don't have Sephiroth for English. I don't envy Riku having to deal with that prick at home."

Their leisurely stroll down the corridor came to an abrupt halt when they came across the staff portraits on the wall. Sora felt his anger blaze as he laid eyes on the depiction of Sephiroth's face.

"You big fox-hunting, badger baiting, tweed-shirt bumfuck!" He screeched at the photograph in his boiling fury. He violently shook off Tidus who, for some reason, was pulling at the sleeve of his uniform with some urgency.

"Ahem."

Sora froze, slowly turning his head in the direction of the sound, eyes wide in horror and disbelief. Larxene stood a short distance away looking at him like she was considering signing him up for out- patient therapy at St. Joseph Psychiatric Hospital.

"Not interrupting anything important, am I?" Glossy lips twisted in an unpleasant manner, "I want a word with you, Mr. Strife."

Sora silently cursed. Of all people in this world, Larxene was the second to last (Sephiroth being the last) person he wanted to see right then; and yet there she was staring at his form from head to toe, eyes flashing.

"Maybe you should run away." Tidus breathed in his ear, but Sora couldn't decipher anything because his brain has ceased all operations. However, one thought flittered through his mind.

_I am so fucked._

He spotted the nearest male toilets a few yards to his right and opted for a quick dash into the refuge. Larxene's cold blue eyes narrowed into precarious slits.

"Stop right there! Come back here."

Sora froze in his pursuit of a safe haven. "Stop right there, come back here - which? I'm confused…."

"People say it like it's a _bad_ thing, you know, running away from your problems." Tidus uttered, "But if your problems never catch up with you, what's the hitch?"

Sora warily watched the long, decorated claws of the school counselor that drummed on the pale arm irritably. "Right, well, in this case there _would_ be repercussions."

"What do you care? You'd be in the woods, playing the ukulele with the rabbits and the squirrels!"

"_Strife_." Larxene's tone of voice was surprisingly less lady-like than her appearance.

"I suppose I could... run away." He _had_ done it before.

"Do it man!" Tidus cheered.

Larxene took a step forward. Sora took that as his cue to start running.

Tidus watched on in amazement. _I think that was good advice..._ _I mean, I didn't actually expect him to do it... Maybe I wouldn't have said it if I thought there was any chance of him actually doing it... But... yep, there he goes._

Larxene stared at the retreating back, her eyes glittering eerily, as cold as lonesome steel columns jutting from the ground where a building once stood. Wordlessly, she took a pocket-sized notepad from a pocket in her expensive looking skirt and made a brief memo. Tidus winced as a stark ripping sound sliced through the tense stillness that surrounded them.

The click of heels as they neared was almost ominous. He schooled his expression into one of innocence and waited for her to reach him. Larxene held the small, folded note out between them, rubbing the skin at the bridge of her nose, she spoke in a very uninterested voice. "Deliver this to Mr. Strife."

Tidus took the slip uneasily.

"Anything… else?"

Larxene eyed him critically from head to toe for several seconds. He stood stiffly as she assessed him with menacing eyes.

"No. That is all, for now."

With one final haughty toss of her hair, she turned away abruptly; nose high in the air, and the brushed past him without another glance. As soon as she was out of sight Tidus released the breath that had been dutifully clinging to his rib cage and shivered. There was just something inexplicitly _off_ about the woman.

...though he did kind of like it when she was mean to him.

Hopefully that was more of a psychological defect and not a weird sexual thing.

* * *

_God, I'm running away! This is brilliant! Maybe I'll go to KFC and have a whole bargain bucket! Wow, I'm actually good at this. Maybe I'm a natural - yeah, I'm a runner! Of course, there had to be a sport for me, I just never realised. Legs like two great steam locomotives, pumping away, I'm an unstoppable- __**JESUS!**__ Is that a stitch? Fuck, I'm gonna be sick, I need to walk, oh, I think I'm gonna puke, I'm literally going to die._

…_._

_Ugh, what an idiotic boob I was back ten or eleven seconds ago._

* * *

That pesky piece of hair was back again bouncing to and fro with each step he took, mocking Riku's helplessness to tame it. Sora was constantly making fun of him for his so-called 'girly' hair He absently ran a hand through the subservient sliver locks. Did he really have girly hair? He recalled asking a girl what she thought of his hair in chemistry once and she had sighed dreamily before falling over. He _still_wasn't quite sure what to make of that particular reaction.

Yes? No? Maybe so?

His trip to the dentist had been expectedly unpleasant and he vehemently vowed to _never_ lie in that chair (or on any of Xaldin's furnishings) again. In Riku's life Xaldin had always filled the niche as the creepy, leering uncle. No matter the occasion Xaldin would always have an innuendo at hand that would leave him feeling uncomfortable for hours. Needless to say, he wasn't exactly his favourite family friend... even if he did offer him _free_ dental service.

Not that he had financial problems to speak of - quite the opposite actually. Nevertheless his father refused to spend more money on him than he absolutely _had_ to.

... cheap bastard.

Riku pulled the navy blue hoodie over his uniform as he neared the school grounds. He felt incredibly stupid wearing it in the sweltering summer heat and the way it sat over his blazer in all the wrong ways made it uncomfortable, too. But he would _not _take it off. If he did there was a high probability of Selphie and her posse of harpies noticing his presence and swarming to him like locusts for the rest of the day in all their screeching, clingy glory.

Riku meandered through the car park with his head bowed, hood draped over his eyes and hands shoved in his pockets as he headed for the fire exit. He imagined that he looked like a hobo.

"Riku!"

_Act normal. Just pretend nothing's wrong. Nothing is wrong…_

"Rikuuuu!" The hideous, whiny voices persisted. What had he been thinking? He never should've come to school today - he should have stole Kadaj's nail polish or stayed at the dentist's and thrust a drill through his ribs (either way would've landed him in the hospital in critical condition).

"Rikuuuuuuuuu!"

No. There was still time. He could hang himself from the school flagpole… Oh God. He was going to be the next Edgar Allen Poe, wasn't he?

He strolled through the car park, ignoring the howl's from the open classroom windows when abruptly a hand shot from behind two cars, grabbing the loose fabrics of his pants and dragged him downwards.

"Keep your voice down!" His very _male_ captor hissed, and as if the warning wasn't sufficient a hand was snapped on his mouth roughly.

Riku shrugged off the restraining hand and rounded on his captor.

"_Sora?_"

Christ! He'd almost had a heart attack!

"What the hell are you _doing_?"

"I've really done it this time, Riku." Sora began, looking troubled, "This isn't late homework or a misspelled memo…" he lowered his voice and furtively whispered, "I'm a _fugitive_."

"That's probably not going to look good on your school report…." Riku intoned dryly.

"I'm going feral, Riku. Rejecting society and living like an animal!"

Riku rolled his eyes. "Sora, you're hiding out in the parking lot - you're not exactly Grizzly Adams." It was just Sora being, well… _Sora_. Idiot. He'd actually been _worried_ there, for a moment.

Sora adopted his '_Hey! I'm serious!_' expression.

"This is only the beginning! We've got to toughen up - this is the _21st century_. You've seen _Mad Max_ haven't you? That's what's going to happen!"

**"**_Mad Max_ isn't necessarily going to happen, Sora."

**"**That's what you think! You're still living in your _Hitchhiker's_ _Guide_ world where you'll go around in your bathrobe and have a nice cup of tea."

"You're absolutely right." Riku deadpanned, "How could I have been so blind?"

Sora rolled his eyes at the show of coolness and proceeded to lament the morning's events. Riku listened on, thoroughly amused.

"So let me get this straight, you were innocently paying attention in English when my Dad called you a stupid whore and hit you, then Larxene chased you out here with the promise of sending you into electrotherapy until you're 50 _if _you ever come back, for no apparent reason, and that's _exactly_ how it went?"

Sora nodded vigorously and bemoaned his fate as an exile. Riku played his role as best friend and performed his best impression of listening, nodding at appropriate intervals.

Stopping, Riku turned to face the brunet. "Where's your lunch? I'm starving."

Sora leant against the car, stretching his legs out in front of him, "Oh right, I forgot to bring it from my locker. I'll just skip the next class and eat then. I think I've got some kind of a language class. I think it's French… or German."

Sharing Sora's lunch was a tradition that had started in nursery school. One day, little Sora had noticed, amongst the sunshine-y smiles and childish happy chat, a peculiarly sullen child with no packed lunch and had offered to share his own. Nowadays his mother even began preparing portions _for_ Riku.

_Good old Aerith, she's from the more sophisticated end of the mum spectrum. The sort of mum you'd buy in John Lewis…_

Sora stole another moment to think, probably probing every crook and cranny. "Actually it could even be Urdu, not like I actually know. Or care."

_...Whereas he's the sort of son you'd get free with Nuts magazine._

"What happened to becoming a model student?"

"Well..." Sora started, lacing his fingers behind his head, "I figure if it ain't broke, why fix it? And even if it _is _broke, just ignore it and maybe it'll be sort of OK. Y'know, like the environment."

Riku simply scoffed.

The school bell chimed, signaling the start of lunch. Students filtered out of the main building and into the courtyard. From their stakeout point Riku and Sora could see them clearly. The closest group, were members of the highest totem pole of Shermer High's social strata; with distaste Riku noticed Selphie to be among their number.

"I'll be right back," Sora said, needlessly brushing off his wrinkled pants as he stood, "I'm going to get my lunch while the halls are full. Larxene has less chance of seeing me. She's probably on her lunchbreak by now." Sora threw a careless wave over his shoulder and offered him a hasty '_later_!' and he was gone.

Riku resumed his surveillance of the courtyard. He idly watched Sora's blue eyes, nose and heart-shaped face as Roxas socialized, noting the absence of animation and light in the features that he was so used to. The uniform that garbed the slim form was pressed and neat; it wasn't crumpled, nor was it missing the compulsory tie and blazer. Everything about the appearance was neat and precise, as opposed to the lackadaisical ensemble he had come to admire. Cerulean orbs trailed lazily across the courtyard while the facial muscles were organised to portray attentiveness to whatever Hayner was explaining with an array of exaggerated hand motions. For the second time that day blue eyes acknowledged green, except this time the face transformed into a vicious scowl instead of a toothy grin. He didn't know _why_ exactly, but ever since they'd hit puberty Roxas seemed to be waging some sort of personal hate campaign against him. Their eye contact was broken swiftly when he tore his eyes away to watch as Sora dramatically burst out of the fire exit door.

"Shit!" The brunet screamed as he looked frantically around for a place to hide, "Crap!"

Before he let loose any more profanities, Riku grabbed his wrist and pulled him into their stakeout spot.

"She was… she was waiting at my locker…. c-caught me off guard, and stuff. Yeah. I wasn't expecting that." Sora panted as he collapsed next to him. Riku watched him wordlessly while he caught his breath. After a pause, Sora winked at him and grinned wildly, holding up a small package. He brought it to his nose and breathed in the scent, making an appreciative sound in his throat. "But it was totally worth it!"

"You can't stay hiding there forever!" Larxene howled breathlessly from the threshold of the fire exit, scanning the courtyard blindly. Sora turned a mischievous grin on him_._

"She thinks we can't hide here forever."

Riku smirked.

"She obviously doesn't know us at all, does she?"

For a while Riku observed Selphie with something akin to derision. Oh, how he _envied_ her and her advantages over him. Two advantages, to be exact; one, she was a girl (he was 85% sure that Sora was straight) and two, she had no qualms when it came to expressing herself. Riku wasn't sure which one was harder to overcome. If push came to shove he could always Chris Brown the bitch. Ho yeah.

Ok, now where had_ that_ come from?

On the upside, she only had eyes for him. The thought warred between bitterness and irony. Riku watched as Selphie strut around and frowned at the spectacle.

_The doe-eyed little flirt_.

What did Sora see in her?

"You have a crush on someone."

Riku took a small, calculated bite from his share of the sandwich.

"Where the hell did that come from?" he muttered, hoping Sora was just bored again. If that were the case, then a few insults and maybe some fighting would distract him. If he actually wanted to know… it would take a miracle…

"I wonder…" Sora smiled knowingly and Riku felt the blood drain from his face.

"And so what if I do?" he interjected, shoving that momentary insecurity back. "What would it matter? I don't have time for… for relationships, or anything. You know that. You should know that better than anybody, it's not like I talk to anyone else." It was true. Who else did he _really_ talk to? Even if it was just to call him an idiot, he talked to Sora at least once a day…

"You do too have time! If I have time, you have time!" Sora scowled fiercely. "Heck, it's not like you'd have to chase a girl down. I mean, c'mon, Riku… we're friends, right? You can tell me!" Then his face transformed and there was something about the insistence in his eyes, in his voice and in his manner that sent Riku's stomach into uncomfortable flips.

"Tell me, or I'm gonna run around telling everybody that Riku Secretan is a little priss who likes to wear lacy panties and a tutu while he sings show tunes in front of a mirror! So THERE!"

"Go ahead. No one would believe you."

"GAH." Riku found himself stifling the stirrings of a smile, watching the person he was closest to in the world flail about like an epileptic puppy. It wasn't something he did often, smiling, there was never much call for it. But whenever he did, it always seemed to be because of Sora.

Sora was eyeing him again, and he felt himself swallowing nervously - the level of intensity in those blue orbs wreaked havoc with his heartbeat. Did he-?

Did he… _know_?

"Riku," Sora gave him an affectionate nudge in the left shoulder, "you really are an idiot."

Riku was suddenly hyper aware just how _close_ they were sitting. Physical closeness had never been something that had made him comfortable, and it certainly wasn't any better when it was an object of some very strong feelings that was in his personal space. The tightness in Riku's chest was more than uncomfortable; it was as though he was waiting for judgment on his life. Somehow the whole process was made more agonizing by the wide blue eyes that were regarding him with a curiosity that seemed so… innocent, so nonjudgmental and so far out of tune with his words that it hurt.

"I didn't want to pry… but I've noticed you staring."

"What?" He muttered, eyeing him with some measure of uneasiness. His heart was adamantly refusing to leave his throat, beating rapidly and painfully. Every sense told him there was something not the same here, something different in Sora's eyes, something he couldn't identify and yet seemed perfectly in place there, like it'd been there all along and he was just now noticing…

"Why didn't you just tell me? I mean, we're friends, right?" Sora's smile was soft, almost tentative, as if he was afraid that Riku would mock his tenderness. Riku felt stricken with the vulnerable curve of his lips and he couldn't help but openly gape at this thin, tiny hint of… of… _something_ lurking behind his friend's face.

"I… it's not really important." Riku cast his eyes downward, embarrassed for reasons he didn't feel up to explaining to himself.

"Not important? Of course it's important!"

Riku felt his eyes snap to Sora's face in astonishment, his stomach flipping. Where was the laughter? Where was the mocking denial of anything that could cause discomfort?

"Well, it's how you feel, right? It's important how you feel, and it just, y'know, hurts that you couldn't tell me, 'cause you never did tell me anything important, and I was starting to think you didn't trust me or something. And you're my friend, so of course I'm gonna care! And… and… yeah!" Sora's cheerful ramble faded into stammering. "But honestly Riku…" He paused, then relaxed the serious expression into an impish smile. "How could you have a crush on someone like Selphie?"

Riku stared.

And stared.

And stared a little bit more for good measure.

"…_What_…?" he managed to croak after a minute or so, dumbfounded. Sora thought that _he_ had a crush… on Selphie? _Him_ in love with _Selphie_? That was like Swaziland trying to invade China - a bloody political joke!

Riku put his head in his hands as Sora babbled on, self-satisifed.

_Well, if this isn't the king of all misunderstandings…_

* * *

The blunt lead tip hovered over question six and remained frozen for several moments. How the hell was he supposed to find the cosine of 45? What _was_ the cosine? He scolded himself for doodling stars and cat-faces all over his notebook when he was supposed to be alert and listening to the teacher.

Hindsight really was a bitch.

"Roxaaaaaaas," Sora whined as he leaned back in his chair until he was virtually reclining. He could just see Roxas across the hallway through the crack of open door, he seemed to be diligently scribbling at his own homework.

Yeah, Roxas was one of _those_ types.

"What do you want?"

Sora smiled serenely and tilted his chair back, "It's this maths homework…."

Roxas didn't look up as he answered, "You don't get it? Well, _quelle fucking surprise_. I'm busy."

Sora's face crumpled. There were two things in this world that made him truly enraged and cracks against his level of intelligence was one. Sora barely felt the words graze his lips as they hurriedly soared out his mouth.

"Oh yeah? Well, you're a posh spaz!"

Roxas paused his jotting and straightened in his chair, expression flat. "Really? Well I'd love to know in what way I am a posh spaz." He drawled.

"In the way that you do posh, spazzy things like... tidying up and... ironing your socks."

"I do _not_ iron my socks."

Sensing that his plight for help was about to warp into their routine sniping sessions Sora attempted to steer the 'conversation' in a more tactful direction.

"Aww, come _on_. It'll be fun."

Roxas' face scrunched up into an aggravated glower. "Why does everything have to be fun to be worthwhile? Crick and Watson discovered the double helix. Did they do it on a skateboard? No? Well fuck off then, I'm not interested." The pine door slammed shut with a resounding thud and ceased their communications. Sora stared vacantly at it for a moment.

What the hell was a double helix?

"Socks, shirts, whatever! Posh spaz!"

A prickling heat simmered just beneath his skin. Sora pulled at the neckline of his t-shirt. He twisted around in his seat to his unfinished homework once more. He scribbled a series of wicked looking smiley faces to accompany the stars and cats on the otherwise blank A4 paper. The faint smell of some foreign spice wafted just beneath his nose.

It sort of made him want to sneeze.

"The last futile resistance?"

In one glorious second Sora jumped ten inches out of his seat and flung his hands into the air. His pencil flew out the window and clinked against the drainpipe outside as it fell. He spun around in his chair to face Axel, who reclined languidly against his bedroom door as if he owned it.

"Oh, it's only you. I was just contemplating the… erm, cosain of 45. And it's not _futile_."

Axel swaggered over to his usual place on the bedraggled covers of his bed. He salvaged Roxas' guitar from a mound of dirty clothing on the floor. Long spindly fingers plucked at the strings of the guitar. "This is fucking _wicked_." Fingers plucked a the C, E and then D chord in quick succession, "I'm almost definitely a musical genius." B, F and A chord, "Maybe I should get a tattoo... on my chest... but... of my _face_. Yeahh! Double me! Feel it!"

Sora threw a disapproving stare over his shoulder, "Hey, I'm _trying_ to concentrate here." In truth, he was glad for the jovial intermission in his diligent studying, his brain felt looser and more relaxed than it had several minutes ago.

"S'all bullshit anyways." A warm breath trailed lazily across his ear as a hand balanced itself on the surface of the desk. The free hand scooped up the notebook by its pages where it remained suspended above his head haphazardly. Sora didn't support the sudden disregard in his personal space; he gave a dissatisfied look to the face that had appeared over his shoulder to suggest as much.

"It's not bullshit." He began indignantly. He sat forward in his chair abruptly, the legs thumped angrily against the carpet. "It's _knowledge_."

Axel flicked through an array of notebooks on the desk with decidedly tepid interest and scoffed. "Nothin' worth knowing can be taught. Information isn't knowledge."

"Oh yeah? Well it's bullshit I need to know." Sora muttered, tinkering inattentively with the pencil in his hands.

Axel smiled covertly, "Well if you need it, I _suppose_ I can, y'know, help you out."

A quiet moment of redundant gazing passed. Sometimes the world was frighteningly convenient.

Sora stared pointedly at the other. "Why are you being nice?"

"I'm always nice."

Sora's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "No you're not. You're a dick. Why are you being nice?"

Pallid hands retreated into black pockets and Axel slowly turned away from him.

"I'm bored, ok?" The frustrated Djinn confessed. "I'm _dangerously_ bored. You haven't wished for a single thing since we got here and I have absolutely nothing to do! Today I even considered doing the thing that that MP and Michael Hutchence did. You know…" Sora watched inertly as Axel mimed putting a noose around his neck and masturbating.

Sora fiddled awkwardly with a blob of hardened clay on the bedside table that was supposed to be an ashtray. Roxas had laughed continuously for five hours when Sora had unveiled it in art class, claiming it looked more like horse crap than something to put cigarette ashes in. A similar scenario ensued when he had presented it to his parents. His Dad had actually laughed.

_Laughed!_

Cloud laughing was rarer than the transit of _Venus_.

For the life of him, Sora could not see what was so _funny_. He flipped the ashtray around a few times, looking for the comedic value that eluded him so.

"Well," Sora cleared his throat, "If you _do _do that, don't do it in here. The hook's almost off the wall as it is."

"Oh, that's nice. Thanks man." Axel touchily stated. "I'll just chuck it in with all my other molderin' resentments, shall I?"

Focusing his attention back on Axel, Sora expected to find his study partner in the same exasperated mind set as he was. But, what he discovered was that Axel looked tenser than he had ever seen him. His back was stiff and his shoulders were clenched; his eyes were staring strangely at the pine door that Roxas had shut on him earlier, as though veiling a particularly intense thought.

**"**Exactly." Sora muttered, slowly, "Stick it on the bill." It was no big deal. He was going to get detention. So what? His grades had always left something to be desired. Besides…

(_To receive, something of equal value must be lost._)

The boy with the red hair leaned forward slightly, gaze lifting from the door and isolating Sora_._ He was suddenly reminded that this boy was not little by any means—or even a boy for that matter, despite appearing to be about the same age as himself. The elegant, mature stance was that of an old professor who'd seen the world, it demanded a certain respect. It seemed to command the very essence of time. Glancing down at the floor, Sora found Riku's journal lying there pointlessly, as if warning him to run.

"Just remember…" Axel's voice wound into a lower, tightened resonance, "Forgiveness has its limits too."

Sora was sure that, even though he had no idea what Axel was implying, it was something monumental in their already awkward relationship.

* * *

**Return of the Author's Note:** Weird ending, I KNOW, but it'll make sense much, much later.


	4. Gotta Stay High

**Author's Note: **I just feel the need to say **thank you thank you thank you** to those of you who reviewed. They _really _made me smile. Nothing says appreciation like a review, right? I lurrrrrrrve you guys! Hope you enjoy the chapter (and I hope I don't make Kairi seem like a biatch. I _really_ tried to avoid that.)

This chapter's theme is '_Gotta Stay High__' _by New Radicals.

Slight **warning**: some language.

Thanks for reading!

* * *

**Chapter 4:**

Gotta Stay High

I saw your eyes  
Fell back to yesterday  
_______________—One lonely child  
_Until you let me stay _______________  
I had no one on my side_  
The dam has broke  
_____________—_My soul is spilling all over your hands___________—  
_Take a look in my eyes_  
__There's something about your pushing me  
______________—_Pulling me___________—  
_That's saying:_  
__"Don't go away."_

* * *

___He could hear voices as soon as he slipped inside the open french doors._

_"____________—_**loves** him too, or did that never occur to you?" Roxas?

___He ventured further into the house, out of the patio and into the hallway. _His feet made no sound as he stepped through. He leaned over the banister slightly to listen in on the conversation.

_"Did it ever occur to **you** that Riku's my friend?" Kairi cried, "I **want** him to be happy!"_

_"This may have escaped your notice, but he's not been happy for a while now." ____That was definitely Roxas. ____Curious, Sora drifted down the stairs, intent on the conversation, flattening himself up against the wall._

_"That's not fair." Kairi's voice said softly, wearily. "You know, it makes me feel awful, seeing that look in his eyes. __It's absolutely heartbreaking. You have no idea how much it **hurts**. I love Riku, too!"_

_"It shows." Roxas' voice replied, sarcastic._

_"I **want** him to know, it would be so much easier if he knew, but it's not **my** right to tell him and it's not your's either."_

_"So you're going ahead with it anyway?"_

_"I can't wait forever. I... I deserve to be happy too, you know? Oh, d__on't look at me like **that**, Roxas. I've found someone that I love and want to spend my life with and that's not something I feel ashamed of." Kairi's voice hissed, there was an undertone in it that made Sora's toes curl in his shoes. __Abruptly he stepped into the room._

_Kairi gasped his name. The two of them had been standing in the kitchen with the island between them._

_"How long have you been standing there?" Kairi asked, and it alarmed Sora to see tears glistening in her eyes._

_"Not long." He lied with very little ease, the shake in his voice and the unsteady pace of his sentence made the falsehood obvious. "Hey Roxas, I didn't expect—"_

_"I was just leaving." Roxas said. His voice sounded hollow to Sora's ears, completely void of emotion. But Sora knew that tone of voice, and he was certain that inside he shook to the very core with it. But why? __Sora didn't understand._

_That night Kairi proposed._

Memories.

He could see them clearly now, as though gazing though an objective lens. Looking back, they felt like another person's life entirely. These were the far, cold reaches of a time that no one but Sora had access to.

How could he have forgotten that conversation? No, he didn't forget it. He just never drudged up the memory.

The memories came in pieces… random and out of place.

_He pulled out a huge bottle of cheap wine and came back out onto the porch and settled down beside Riku. "Here."_

_"What, no glasses?"_

_"What says celebration better than necking from the bottle?"_

_"Classy." Riku replied, dryly. "You know, if you were going to make an effort, you should have bought a more expensive bottle." He took the bottle though his eyes never left Sora as he lifted it to lips._

_"We're can't all be rich bastards like you." __Sora grinned into the mouth of the bottle._

_"True." Riku shoved his hands in his pockets and turned away from Sora, staring off into the distance. What he was looking at, Sora had no idea, all he could see was rain and lots of it. He shifted uncomfortably and opened his mouth, unsure of what he was going to say. "So… why did you leave the engagement party?"_

_Inwardly he cringed. That was definitely **not** what he had wanted to say. Riku said nothing and Sora felt a spark of hope that he hadn't heard. He knew that that hope was just a lie, that Riku was just assimilating what he had said in the drunken fog of his mind._

_"Because I was bored."_

_Apparently he was far too gone for rapid witticism._

_"You liar. There was way too much happening for anyone to be bored. Even you." Sora kicked at a puddle, spraying Riku with an onslaught of muddy water. The motion brought an amused smile to his face and left him the victim of a furious glower._

_Riku stared down at his wet attire with disgust. "You could at least try to act your age," he growled and drew in a controlled breath._

_"Really? And I should be taking advice from you on how to act," Sora used his hands to make the quote marks, "my age?" He chuckled lightly. "I'm your age, you asshole! Maybe you need to start acting your age instead of like some boring, bitter old man."_

_"If I'm so boring then why are you here?" Riku demanded, frustration radiating from him in thick waves. "Shouldn't you be at home with your fiancée?" He spat, glaring darkly into the bottle. Sora eyed Riku uneasily as he took another deep swig of the wine. He wanted to know what had happened to upset his friend so severely that he had stormed out of his engagement party the other night, and yet, despite his curiosity, he found himself reluctant to voice it. Sora somehow sensed that if he did he would be entering the yawning chasm of whatever Riku was falling through._

_"Well, I figure someone has to give you attention when you're acting like an overgrown baby." He smirked, that sounded like something Kairi would have said to him had he done what Riku had done._

_Riku's reply was immediate and stinging._

_"Can't you ever take anything seriously and not invalidate it?" He snapped._

_"I don't do that-"_

_"Yes you do," Riku interrupted, and it sounded like he was holding back most of the resentment he was feeling from reaching his tone. "You can't take anything seriously. Everything has to be a big joke to you. If someone ever tried to tell you something **important** you'd just laugh it off."_

_There was an aura of anger surrounding Riku, but Sora ignored it. "There's no need to be so jealous." He taunted, awaiting some sort of response._

_The widening of Riku's eyes threw Sora off completely._

_Apparently he had not been expected to say that. In all honesty, he'd never even considered the possibility that Riku could be jealous. But, judging by the horrified expression on the other's face, perhaps the assumption wasn't too far off._

_Sora grinned. "You **are** jealous," Across from him, Riku was growing increasingly tense, his eyes narrowed into tiny slits. "Who would have thought? The great Riku Secretan, jealous of little ol' Sora Strife?" He snickered. __It was only meant to be a slight jab, but he found himself wanting to push Riku's buttons. He wanted to get a reaction - **any reaction **but that cold, impassive expression…_

_"Jealous of you?" The man actually scoffed at his words, "No. I'm definitely not jealous of **you**."_

_And then h__e laughed._

_It seemed obscene coming from his mouth - that laughter which was so thick, and ugly, like nails on a chalkboard. It made bile rise in Sora's throat_._ He had expected some sort of comeback, some sort of insult thrown, like they did in the past. Maybe a 'shut up moron,' or 'whatever, you idiot.' __Riku was supposed to mock him and call him names that only served to further infuriate him, not…_

_"You are so stupid!" Riku said between rib cracking peals of laughter. "Jesus Christ! You are so fucking **stupid**!"_

_And just like that, Sora's good mood was gone. He should have questioned the ease with which a single person could dampen his spirits – with one word, even. He gritted his teeth, mentally trying to calm himself down. He knew he shouldn't care in the least for Riku's opinion of him but it was undeniable then that he was offended, that his pride had been hurt; and even though he shouldn't care, he did – cared enough to want to know why._

_"Why are you being such an asshole?" Sora questioned, finally unable to keep the question in._

_"The same reason you are a complete moron." Riku said, suddenly apathetic - collected. It was amazing how little time it took for him to gather himself into that ball of blankness that nothing could get into. H____________is whole countenance became suddenly cold; chilly as ice splayed over December roadways_. "_____________Now leave me. I want to be alone._"

___To Sora, the statement just... didn't click. It wasn't because the idea was particularly complicated or revolutionary, but simply because part of him refused to see it. Because of this, a strong frustration welled up from inside him and produced an unexplainable amount of anger alongside it._

_____There was a heavy emptiness in the air that neither confirmed or denied the statement________—yet, it was undeniable that there was something tugging at Sora, pleading him to stay, begging him **not** to leave._

_"You're lying."_

_He refused to let go._

_________________They locked eyes; angry-lost against cold-deadly._

_"You're **lying**. You don't__ want that, nobody ever wants to be alone. and I_ can't **let** you want that because... because we're... "

_"We're what?" ______________Riku's eyes were bottomless, sucking him in, relaxed and yet exhausted at the same time. _"Needy? Pathetic?"

_"Because we're friends."_

___Riku's blue-green eyes regarded him and Sora swore he caught the barest flicker of emotion in them. Just a flicker, but one that certainly existed. A__________nd then, all too suddenly, it was gone. H_is _pale lips constricted into a thin line, ________eyes adopting the appearance of lifeless, green marbles; t__hen h______________________e__________ laughed that horrible little laugh again, dry, raspy and painfully barren of anything humourous._

_______"God, I hate you for what you've done to me."_

_________________________Blue eyes promptly cast to the other, who now stood looking as still and worn as the corroded buildings around them. __"**Me?**" Sora gaped, "What have **I** got to do with any of this? What did I do?" ____He felt his heart sink as he noticed how the other man suddenly closed off. __Had that been the wrong thing to say…?_

_For a long time Riku said nothing. Instead he took another swig and stared moodily out over the village, his eyes were starting to narrow in on the landscape. Sora______ felt a growing trepidation as he observed the solemn gleam that had appeared in Riku's eyes._

_"Nothing. You just don't understand." He said eventually, his expression almost depressed. "You **never** understand."_

_Suddenly disheartened, Sora let his own eyes wander to the trees, evading the dull glaze of his companion's stare._

_It had definitely been the wrong thing to say._

_

* * *

_

Aerith was already bowed over a steaming skillet on the stove when Sora entered the kitchen on Friday morning. He made his standard 'good morning' rounds and plopped down into one of the four chairs at the table.

"Good morning," His mother chirped, poking at the eggs in the pan. "You're up early. What's the joyous occasion?"

"Morning detention?" Cloud muttered from the head of the table, eyes riveted on the Daily Sun newspaper.

"You're always so pessimistic," Sora answered, "Can't I just be up because I love the sunrise and want to get a fresh start on this bright new day?"

Cloud bestowed him with a flat look.

"Whhhaaat? I _don't_ have detention!"

The globs of bacon and eggs in the pan began to sizzle warningly as Roxas emerged from the stairwell.

"God, you look horrible." Their alarmed mother voiced, putting her other hand on his brow to compare temperatures. "Do you feel sick anywhere? Does your stomach hurt? Are you coughing?"

Roxas batted the affectionate hand away irritably. "I'm fine, Aerith."

"Well, you don't feel hot." Aerith affirmed, crossing her arms and staring at him as if he was a puzzle to put together. "But there's something wrong. I know it. Are you getting enough sleep?"

Sighing, Roxas lifted his head, only to balance it on his palm. "Maybe I didn't get enough rest last night…"

"Whatcha readin' about, Dad?" Sora inquired across the table.

Cloud's blue eyes lifted from the newspaper and briefly flitted to Roxas' hunched figure. "The recent crimewave in Twilight Town. A bunch of delinquents are supposed to be behind it. They've been dubbed '_The Organisation_' by the tabloids. What a nuisance."

"I've never heard of them." Roxas stated.

"Hmm. Maybe you should ask Zexion or something," Sora suggested, "Riku said he's into _darker_ things." He snickered, "You should see some of Roxas' new friends Dad, they're so _dark_ and _scary_-looking."

"_You're_ the one hiding things." Roxas grumbled ambiguously. Abruptly Cloud turned his human-lie-detector gaze on him that gleamed as threateningly as his .600 Nitro Magnum.

"_What?_" Sora's voice cracked. Roxas wasn't going to expose his old porn collection was he? To his _parents_? More importantly _their_ parents?

Ignoring him, Roxas went on, "What about that Axel kid, huh? He's a delinquent if I ever saw one."

"Oh I don't know," Aerith said, "He seems like such a nice boy. A little... _energetic_ perhaps, but nice."

"If by 'energetic', you mean disobedient and destructive, then, yes, he's _very_ energetic." Roxas grumbled quietly.

"Speaking of, he's not been round here recently, are you two still getting along alright?"

Sora felt his eye twitch. '_Getting along_' was definitely not the proper term to describe their unstable and incredibly weird relationship. "I don't know…" He confessed, sighing into his folded arms. "I think he's maybe kind of mad at me for something…" It had been almost three days since their last encounter and not one sudden appearance of the red-haired boy had occurred.

"Elbows off the table, Sora." Aerith commanded as she distributed a plate of bacon and eggs to the three males sat around the dining room table. "So who's detention with today?"

"Sephiroth."

"AHA!" Aerith suddenly cried, smacking the young brunet square on the nose with her spatula as she gesticulated widely. "I knew it! Sora Strife, you can keep nothing from me."

Suddenly there was an intensity storming the azure eyes of his father as they honed in on him. His mother had told him that Sephiroth and Cloud had been the best of friends once – a fact that Sora couldn't even _begin_ to phantom, considering his father practically radiated hatred whenever Sephiroth's name was dropped.

"Is he bothering you, Sora?"

Sora smiled back in a meaninglessly innocent fashion. "No, not really." Not anymore than usual, anyway.

"Well, there has to be some reason why you're up." Aerith pressed, her index finger lightly tapping against her bottom lip as she thought, "If it's not Sephiroth then… Riku?"

Sora groaned, burying his head in between his arms.

"I knew something was bothering you. Have you two been fighting again? What did he do?"

"He didn't do anything—he just…UGH!" Sora cried, wringing his hands exasperatedly. And, without thinking, he allowed his inner frustrations to spill out. "There's someone who really likes Riku, and I think they may be right for each other, but…"

Aerith's face almost exploded at the cheeks. "Ohhh, wait. I see. Do I happen to know this person we're talking about?"

"Yes, you do, but I don't want to discuss it."

"Ah." The smile lit the room. "Sora, you know that I love you, correct?"

"Of course."

"And you know I would love you no matter what you choose to do?"

"Well, except if you joined a gang." Cloud interjected, his gaze drifting to Roxas who, in turn, responded with an irritable scowl. "Then you'd be disowned in a matter of seconds, maybe sooner."

"-And you do know I hold no prejudice against any people of any kind, correct?"

"Except for _gang members_." Cloud reiterated with a pointed look at the youngest Strife. Roxas looked ready to strangle something.

Sora nodded curtly wondering where on Earth this conversation was going. "Yes, Mom. I know."

Aerith cleared her throat and began to idly wipe the spotless kitchen surface. "And well, you know that if you happened to bat for the—the _other_ team, that I, no, _we_ would completely and whole-heartedly accept you, correct?"

Sora looked up into his mother's flushed face. "I don't play baseball, Mom."

Roxas tched. "Are you always this stupid or are you making a special effort today?"

"What your mother is trying to ask you is this:" Cloud gazed impassively at him. "Are you gay?"

"**WHHHAATTT?**"

For the next several minutes Sora tried to convince his parents that just because he hadn't brought a girl home or really pointed out any 'hot chicks' while shopping, that that didn't mean he was suddenly_gay_. He failed to notice, at this time, how his mother's face dropped or how Cloud smirked_. _He followed the conversation up by stating that he did not believe that love was limited to a particular gender before realising there was only five minutes until he was supposed to meet Kairi and Riku. In the process of rushing, he tripped and met the floor, and took a moment to moan/curse the morning before he got up to continue his pursuit of the door in a more careful, albeit panicked rush. As he stooped to collect his schoolbag he witnessed his parents exchange a suspicious _look_ and, while it unnerved him, Sora couldn't quite find it in him to be wary.

Besides, what underhanded motives would his _parents_ have for questioning his sexuality?

As the door closed behind Sora his parents shared a covert glance.

Slowly, _carefully_, Aerith said, "So he's… bisexual?"

Cloud slowly folded the paper neatly and placed it aside, he leaned forward, eyes dead serious. "I'll raise you 50 munny."

"You're _still_ betting on whether Sora's going to choose Riku or Kairi?" Roxas asked incredulously.

"Uh-huh. You want in?"

Roxas took a deep breath and prepared his long, thoughtless, meaningless speech. He had no idea why he was even attempting to talk to them; he knew that nothing he said would get past their shield of immorality. "You two represent the selfish, moral blank, lazy cynicism and sneering, ironic take on the world that encapsulates everything wrong with a generation. It's no wonder Sora turned out such a fruitcake. I'm intrigued to see what you're going to do next. Really. Maybe you'll ring Grandad and tell him you think he's a boring twat," A new pain was added unceremoniously to his already tender head as Aerith whacked him with her spatula. His father uttered an unconvincing "Watch your language."

"So you're not interested? Oh that's a real darn shame sweetie," Aerith murmured softly looking slightly dejected, though Roxas didn't miss the way her eyes narrowed manipulatively for a split second. Ha. She'd have to try a hell of a lot harder to play him for a fool. He wasn't Sora - he didn't have that inherent habit of believing in the good in everyone. He knew their games and tricks. "Aunt Tifa, Uncle Zack _and_ Uncle Cid are in now, not to mention most of the neighbourhood, so the sweepstake total is… it's… what's the word I'm searching for, honey?"

"Gynourmous."

Roxas raised an inquisitive eyebrow. Normally Cloud didn't use made-up words, but when he did it was generally because there were no words in the English dictionary that were sufficiently descriptive. He glanced sideways, "Exactly _how_ much are we talking here?" Aerith leaned down to whisper the reply in his ear. Brilliant blue eyes widened impossibly. "And that's…?"

"The amount _split _between the winning side, yes."

"Ok. 50 munny on Kairi. There's no way Riku's got the balls to tell him."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that. Who's to say it'll be Riku confessing?" The blond cast his mother a sidelong glance, "Well, I know looks don't make the man but Riku's a hot one. You can't deny it. Seriously, you can't! I mean, _objectively_ speaking of course." Roxas' eyes narrowed over the rim of the honey-coloured coffee mug. "What, you don't think so?" She asked sheepishly.

Rubbing his nose fiercely, Roxas glared at his guardian. "He's a mopey, arrogant, stuck-on-himself asshole with a god complex. And for god's sake, he doesn't look _nice_, he looks like an ice queen!" Roxas scowled just _thinking_ about that infuriating smirk he always wore, the pathetically sad eyes and the emo boy hair, but there was only one _real_ reason Roxas disliked the boy, and it had nothing to do with the aforementioned factors. Gripping his pencil, he heard the faint sound of it bending from the pressure of his quenching hand. As the pencil snapped in his merciless fingers, he imagined Riku's neck in its place.

"So Roxas…" His father's voice cut through his internal hate crusade, "You enjoy the odd gamble?"

"Yeah, sure." Roxas answered offhand and took a long gulp of coffee. He scowled when it didn't taste as good as he'd anticipated and irrationally felt it was somehow Riku's fault.

"Oh _really?_ Well that's interesting." Cloud continued to survey him coolly, a small piece of hardly-comfortable silence passed over the room. "You are aware that gambling is often associated with_gangster_related activities?"

Roxas had reached the peak of his admittedly very limited patience. "You know, I always thought you were just really good at your job. But you really _are_ an asshole, aren't you?"

Cloud smirked behind the cover of his paper, "They go hand in hand, son."

* * *

"You're late."

Riku ran a hand through his hair, which fell back into his eyes that particular _way_ that drove teenage girls mad, but Sora was not a girl and knew that it was a sign of agitation.

"I know, and normally I'm so regular. I think…" Sora eyed his friends gravely. "…I think I'm pregnant." The other boy laughed and gave the brunet a small, playful shove so that he knocked shoulders with the giggling redhead.

"Hey, hey, you know what you two looked like? You looked like a couple in one of those anticipatory shots in romantic movies all huddled close together, like that." Sora teased.

Kairi and Riku exchanged glances. Kairi stuck her tongue out and spoke in a teasing voice. "You jealous?"

"How could I not be?" Sora continued with a leer, "You were making lovey eyes at each other, whispering sweet nothing's in each other's ears..." He paused and unwittingly his face scrunched up at the thought. "Actually, please don't ever do that. I mean, it'd just be weird."

For some reason they both laughed at that and their laughter made Sora want to laugh with them, warm and infectious as it was. He found himself smiling stupidly at their mirth but he couldn't help but feel he somehow the butt of their joke. "What?"

Riku and Kairi shared a look. "I don't think there's any danger of _that_, Sora."

* * *

The three of them strolled their usual route towards Shermer High and after a while in which Kairi and Riku talked (whined/complained/bitched) of school committee duties and their homework load Riku cast a sidelong glance at a suspiciously quiet Sora that should have been more wary.

"Yes?"

"I haven't asked the question yet."

"Yes."

"Is the answer?"

"What?"

"Is yes the answer?"

"Is the question."

"But is yes the answer?"

"I don't know, is it?"

"Take a gamble."

"No."

"No is the answer?"

"No is the answer. Yes is never the answer."

"So no is the answer?"

"No is the answer."

"So if I were to say, you _aren't_ going on a spanking hot date tonight, then your answer is no?"

"_Date?_" Kairi asked, in an alarming half-squeal, "What date?"

Riku crossed his arms warning indifferently, "Sora, I keep a roll of duct tape in the top drawer of my desk. If you keep talking, you'll find out why."

"Between Riku and Selphie." Sora's face beamed at Kairi. Riku sighed, rubbing his temples with two long fingers.

"Okayyy," Kairi drawled, clearly unconvinced, "Jokes asides, who were you _really_ talking about?"

Sora blinked. "I wasn't joking."

Kairi looked towards Riku, who (begrudgingly) nodded in confirmation.

Silence.

More silence.

Kairi burst out laughing.

"Be serious!" She giggled, 'serious' sounding something more of 'see-hee-hee-_heeeerious_' due to her undying laughter. Selphie? Selphie and _Riku_? Good Lord! It was all too much!

"I _am_ being serious!" huffed Sora with his arms crossed. Kairi's lighthearted giggles bubbled away when she noticed the positively deadly glare Riku was casting her. She was laughing while _he _was in the midst of a crisis! The _least_ she could do was act sympathetic.

"Come on Riku, please?" Sora continued, eyes widened as they looked into teal green eyes. Riku felt his stomach churn at the pathetic plea. He quickly engaged Kairi in conversation before Sora wheedled him into doing something he would regret. Sora scowled at Riku's reaction, but it didn't surprise him. Thus far all his attempts to approach Riku with the subject of Selphie had been thwarted, every time he so much as _mentioned_ her Riku adopted all the characteristics of a social butterfly. If Riku liked Selphie so much why did he keep changing/avoiding the subject when he asked him about her?

Retard.

Hiding his emotions wasn't going to make their relationship any better.

Sora spun around suddenly not noticing Riku was moving to walk around him from behind. Riku narrowly avoided the collision, somehow managing to make the move look both dramatic and casual at once. "Idiot. Watch where you're going."

"You're the one that can't walk properly, asshole!" Kairi cuffed Sora roughly on the head. "Ow! What did you do that for?"

"Is that how you're supposed to speak around a lady?" inquired Kairi with a quirk of her eyebrow.

"Lady?" Sora echoed, rubbing his head gingerly, "Who's a lady here? As far as I know, ladies are supposed to be all quiet and proper and keep their hands to themselves. You're practically a man."

The smirk on Kairi's face became strained and her eye twitched at his words. "A… man…?"

He paused in his rambling at her tone of voice, grinning sheepishly when he noticed the look on her face. He immediately clapped his hands together and bowed in a stance of forgiveness. "I'm sorry! Please don't hit me with your manly fists again!"

Riku's eyes rolled skyward, "You're such a wimp." It was then that Sora caught sight of Riku's brown schoolbag; blue eyes glimmered with resolve.

He had an _idea_...

Riku should have noticed the split second where Sora's eyes narrowed manipulatively, but he only saw the indignant expression that followed. "At least I don't _look_ like a porcelain ladyboy!"

Riku only raised a single brow, "_I'm_ not the one who was a bridesmaid at my aunt's wedding."

"Rikuuuuuuu!" The brunet shrieked, eyes wide and arms waving about wildly, "You promised me you'd never bring that up again!"

"Hitler promised not to invade Czechoslovakia, Sora. Welcome to the real world."

Riku watched blankly as Sora continued to make a fool of himself, moving his hands in vague gestures of mortified shock. "Well, look who's calling _me_ girly!" He exclaimed, "_You_ keep a diary!" Sora triumphed at the way Riku's brow knitted – it seemed the stoic boy wasn't impervious to _everything_.

"It's a _journal._" Riku exclaimed indignantly.

"Hey! _I _keep a diary!" Kairi exclaimed, equally as indignant.

Riku took a moment to eye Sora critically.

"You know, you're right," He said. "You're not girly." Mocking people, Riku had always thought, was out of character for himself. Informing others of their stupidity had always seemed like an overly altruistic waste of time. If somebody were to walk across a splintery bridge in their bare feet he wouldn't bother to tell them a thing; if they got splinters, so what?

He paused, gaze lingering.

"Actually, you'd make a really _ugly_ girl."

Sora spluttered in outrage as he wove through the student body, zigzagging around like a deranged bee. "I'm not girly and I'm not ugly either!"

—But somehow, when Sora did the same thing it was a prime opportunity to point out what a waste of air he could be, and then Sora would get mad. And it was...

It was fun.

"Walking spaghetti!" The brunet retorted – too quickly and with too much eagerness for the conversation to keep going where it was going. Riku paused, slowly adopting what Sora recognised as his 'are you a complete moron?' look. "Yeah, I'm talking to you, spaghetti boy. Al dente." The brunet continued pointing threateningly at his friend.

"I'm sorry, but are you saying I _look_ like a piece of _spaghetti_?" Riku asked, incredulous.

"Yes I am, farfalline man. You vertical streak of... spaghetti."

"Hm. Well, farfalline is actually little bows of pasta, so it's impossible to be a little bow and a vertical anything…."

Not to be outdone by the other's sheer coolness, Sora retorted; "Shut up! You're such a… a… sucktard!"

Riku smirked. "Sucktard? What, thinking things you shouldn't?" Sora stared back blankly. Riku shook his head, wondering why he even said that. "Never mind."

"You seem different today Sora." Kairi said softly.

"Oh yeah? How so?"

"You're more…" The redhead paused, it was surprisingly difficult to put into words, "—lost in your thoughts than usual?"

"He's always lost in thought." Riku said, another mordant smirk crossing his lips, "It's unfamiliar territory."

Sora ignored the comment and adopted his most 'innocent' expression, "Speaking of losing something —where's your bag?"

Riku's head snapped up. He'd managed to completely forget about it, distracted by his argument with Sora. He looked to his left to the area his bag had previously occupied to find that it was no longer there.

How? Why? What? When? Where? Who?

"I'll make you a deal, Riku," Sora said with a superior smirk_,_ "You go out on one date tonight with Selphie and I'll return your bag."

Riku felt like he'd just been shot at point blank. How the hell? What the hell? He stood there for a moment more, then it dawned on him. "You need to resort to holding someone's personal belongings hostage in order to get a date?" he said disbelievingly. Sora tauntingly dangled Riku's bag just beyond his reach. Oh-ho-ho! He liked where this was going. Power! Intimidation! "Well?"

Riku's face broke with displeasure; he _hated_ losing. He could feel the bile raise in his throat at the _thought_ of it. "Fine," He snapped, "_one_ date."

Sora let out a loud whoop, completing the celebratory yell with a jump and a fist pumped high into the air. He'd just scored his (Riku's?) first date. _Ever._

It almost made Riku soften to see him so stupidly happy. _Almost._ "Just because today was the first time you have ever, ever, _ever_ successfully arranged a date does not suddenly make you _Alfie_." He ground out. "And I have a condition."

Sora paused in his victory dance.

"If I'm going to go on this date then I want a..."_ taser gun? restraining order_? "… chaperone." Sora's grin only widened. Well, that worked out in _his_ favour, he'd been planning to spy on them anyway, acting as chaperone simply meant he'd have an easily time of it.

"Why I'd l_ove_ to, Riku." He said in a sickeningly sweet voice.

"I can't believe you resorted to stealing his bag to get a date." Kairi laughed, "Do you know how wrong that is?"

"Stealing isn't so bad." Sora reasoned, "It just makes everything very cheap. Plus, you know how I feel about capitalism."

Riku sighed. That damn idiot.

"Yes, _confused_."

* * *

The day progressed with startling boredom, but Sora remained in high spirits and even secretly believed he didn't absolutely bomb his science test. Not an A by any stretch of the imagination, but definitely somewhere in the passing vicinity.

"You think I might've passed that science test, Kai?"

Kairi scooped her heavy text-books into her open bag, slung it over her shoulder. "I should think that you've…"

Sora cocked his head to the side as he watched Kairi's lethargic eyes suddenly sharpen to alertness. He turned around to see just what had enough caliber to widen his friends eye's and—his insides felt dunked in ice water.

_Larxene._

Was he breathing? He wasn't exactly sure. His chest was slowly expanding up and down. His blood seemed to have converted into ice like a creek in the middle of winter, turning his limbs into useless, stiff slabs of meat. Her icy eyes surveyed him for a session of painful seconds, eliciting a cold, sinking feeling in his stomach.

Then she took a step.

…Another step.

…And another step.

...And another—

Sora gulped, dread leaking from his brain to this toes, circulating through him as surely as his blood did.

"What's with that look? You scared?" Kairi laughed_."_My God! You _are_! You're afraid of a dainty, harmless little lady!"

"I'm not afraid!" Sora screeched, though the crack in his voice rendered the denial ineffective. Dainty, little and harmless were three words he would not use to describe _Larxene_. "You just _don't_ walk into the jaws of death - that's common knowledge!"

"The-the jaws of death?" Kairi stammered disbelievingly and laughed. "Exaggerating, much?"

"Shut up! She totally has it in for me!" Sora hissed from a cherry-red face. Well it was ok for _her_ to laugh, she wasn't stuck in this pathetically _unfunny_ situation with Larxene. Abrasive, cruel, foul-mouthed, obsessive, sociopathic Larxene. (And they put _her_ in charge of guiding students into the right path? Go figure.)

"And I'm not _afraid." _Sora spluttered indignantly, "I just wish she liked me, that's all!" He trotted onwards, turning the corner and…

And, well, he wasn't exactly _sure _because a mind-numbing, hazy hot sensation slowly ebbed away all lingering hints of logic. Instantly, colours seemed more vibrant than usual and everything began to move in slow-motion, hazy and furry. His head, which also seemed suspended in this slow-moving delirium, turned inch by inch to face a tall, red-haired boy leaning in the crook of where the lockers met the wall.

Sora scowled faintly—he knew he would be very very **very** aggravated when this weird, dull feeling faded away. But it _bothered_ him to find himself unable to howl indignantly about Axel appearing overtly at school and he was repulsed by the fact that he did not have a single ounce of control over himself, that he could not so much as even mummer a weak protest against while that heat seared through him, overwhelming him, as if to consume him completely. His mind remained in complete disarray, as the green stare rose slowly from the floor to meet his own gaze, those eyes cornered him, they swallowed and chewed him in their profound electric hue.

It was only an idea that came to him much later when he would be mulling over this that he would find himself slightly disturbed that he was unable to _feel _the frustration openly._  
_

Kairi was, and had been, eerily calm through the entire ordeal peered quizzically down at him. How could she stand there so calmly, and so completely _unaffected_ by the fiery haze that was currently wrapping itself around Sora's mind?

"Are you ok, Sora? You look unwell." Kairi stepped closer and brushed his tousled hair away to place a wan, cool hand to his forehead. Sora flinched at the touch - his friend seemed two degrees cooler than the average human being. He had no idea how many dizzying minutes or seconds had passed, he only knew that the edges of his vision were beginning to become fuzzy and distorted. His lungs screamed out for air. It was so _hot_ he couldn't breathe.

"Strife."

Abruptly, the surreal sensation that had enveloped him dissipated. Sora stood waveringly on his feet, feeling the heated disorientation leaking from his brain.

_What…. was...?_

His gaze snapped to the crook of where the lockers that Axel's dark figure had occupied.

It was vacant_._

"Strife."

But he was still around. Sora knew that. He didn't understand why or how he knew—he simply _knew._

_"Strife."_

The sound of the Larxene's voice echoed through his head, returning Sora automatically to his wits. The welling bubbles of heat were beginning to pop and melt back into his stomach lining. Even through his hazy delirium he acknowledged their was something wrong with her voice. No, not wrong. _Different_. Where it usually seeped scorned and cruelty it was now-

"Oh, er, Larxene." He wheezed, almost flinching at the frailty of his voice, barely moving or breathing for fear of breaking the fragile, frightened silence hovering like a ghost through the near-empty corridor. "I… um… didn't see you there…" He trailed off as Larxene's eyes seemed to narrow a perilous centimeter with every word, an unfamiliar gleam in her frosty blue eyes.

_I'm sorry Roxas! He_ thought miserably._ You always said Larxene liked to rip little boys' limbs apart and drink their blood…but I always thought you were exaggerating!_

"Sora's not feeling well," Kairi explained, "We were just heading to the nur—"

Larxene's eyes snapped toward Kairi, "Do I _look_ like a mug? Have I got a handle? Am I made of china? Am I kept in a cupboard or on a small wooden tree? Would you like to put your lips on my rim?" She turned to Sora, leaning in closer, until her nose was almost scraping his—didn't she understand the concept of _personal bubbles_?

"You may answer that last question, Strife." She uttered, "The others were rhetorical."

There was a slippery quiet moment that glided like a fish through the room, the buzz of the florescent lights played like a soundtrack in the background.

Sora blinked, wondering if he'd misheard what had been said so… bluntly. Had he just missed something here? Maybe slipped into a bizarre alternate universe? Kairi caught his eye and shared a look that only confirmed to him Larxene had really just gone _there_.

"A Lion's mane." Larxene muttered rolling a strand of Sora's hair between her fingers slowly and deliberately. Really, what was it with these space issues? Didn't the counsellor understand common decency entailed a standard of _at least_ eight inches of room between two people at any given time? "The King of beasts." Her voice was breathy as she whispered seductively in his ear.

_Seductively?_ Sora almost fainted. Now this was _beyond_ strange.

Blue eyes danced frantically. _This is just not normal. Someone has got to do something. I can't just stand here doing nothing like Larxene's the invading Chinese army. _He glanced sidewards for help but Kairi appeared to be incapacitated in a similar state of shell-shock. _Oh god, it's got to be me._

He stepped back suddenly out of Larxene's grasp, and looked down at his watch, mocking surprise. "Oh look at the time! If we don't go now, we'll be late!" Ignoring the way his voice squeaked, he seized Kairi's limp wrist, and ambled onwards with sudden haste. "Come on! Faster! _Faster!_ We can't be late!"

Kairi regarded the brunet doubtfully, "Are you having some sort of mental breakdown? You _do_ realise you have Sephiroth next, right? "

**"**I'm just… eager to go to class. Do some lessons, gain some, uh… understanding and some time... not _away_ from Larxene, just... without her."

Tidus made his way over to them, he grabbed Sora by the arm and twisted him, throwing an arm around his shoulders, laughing appreciatively. "You sly dog! Being chased by hot older women! Some people really do have all the_ luck!_" He shoved into Sora and grinned a shit-eating grin. "But seriously, can you believe she just went _off _on one like that?"

"It is strange," Sora agreed dourly. Now this mind wasn't as drugged or disorientated as before he could recall what had happened more clearly. Axel had been there and it _wasn't_ a coincidence. He remembered clearly that face, faultless and pale—smooth lines tracing a long, slim nose down to lips that were slightly thin, the slim jaw glued the face together and added a conceited, though graceful edge to his appearance.

Definitely _not_ a coincidence.

Tidus' eyes widened in sudden realisation, "Ho shit. I almost forgot." He pulled a small crumpled note out of his pocket, "I'm supposed to give you this. Hope you don't mind, I read it."He glanced at Sora suspiciously. "What did you do to get landed with weekly counselling?"

Internally, Sora groaned. He was _screwed. _Like_, _completely.

And, quite possibly, literally.

* * *

"—I'm just saying, you don't have to be a _paedophile_ to want to work with children."

Riku pocketed his hands and smirked, "But it probably helps."

As they made their way home later that Friday afternoon Kairi allowed herself to fall behind and watched as her two best friends hobbled away, bickering loudly. There were not many people on their walk home today, which was comprehensible being that it was at least 20 degrees.

"I spent many happy years in the scouts." Sora huffed.

Riku raised an eyebrow, "You told me kinky Leyton was all over you."

"Yeah, alright Leyton _was_ a bit of a pedo. But it was _old-style_ paedoing. Before it got such a bad name."

"_You _would say that. You think the best of _everyone_." Riku scoffed.

"That's not _true_," Sora refuted zealously. "Remember that creepy old man who lived down the street from us when we were growing up? The one I thought for sure kidnapped little kids and ate their hearts?"

Riku's footsteps abruptly discontinued, "Are you talking about my Grandad Xemnas?"

"Is _that_ who that was?"

Kairi stifled a small smile at their antics. How both she and Riku had fallen in love with Sora was perhaps through their own carelessness; they knew that he was unmindful, that he was impulsive and brash; he didn't have a way with words and he certainly didn't have _charm... _but he had _his_ charm. A force, an energy that was entirely his and it seemed to fill up the room that he stood as surely as it filled their dreams.

Riku rolled his eyes and continued strolling forward, "I've got a riddle for you."

The brunet indolently kicked a stray rock, "Oh yeah? Try me."

Sora, of course, was completely oblivious to the lure he held over them—

"How can you lift an elephant with one hand?" The question fluttered in the air for only half a second before Sora's smiling lips twisted in bafflement.

"What the—? Where would you find an _elephant _with one hand?"

Riku let out a long-suffering sigh and Kairi couldn't have stifled her smile if she'd tried.

—Then again, courses of true love never _did_ run smoothly.

* * *

Note: At last! I squeezed in a bit of Riku and Kairi's relationship, _finally_! Can't believe it took me until chapter 4 to introduce such a MAJOR arc of this story!


	5. No Rest For The Wicked

**Author's note: **Okay, I'm not sure if anyone will notice but I sorta meshed chapters 4 & 5 a bit to give it a better flow. So if you're reading this chapter and are like "Wth? When did _that_ happen?" or have slight deja vu just skim over chp 4. Sorry for the confusion!

This chapter's theme is '_Ain't no rest for the wicked'_ by Cage the Elephant.

* * *

**Chapter 5:  
**

Ain't no rest for the wicked.

I was walking down the street when out the corner of my eye  
I saw a pretty little thing approaching me.  
She said:_  
"If you can pay the right price,  
__Your evening will be nice  
__And you can go and send me on my way."  
_I said:  
_"You're such a sweet young thing,  
__Why you do this to yourself?"  
_She looked at me and this is what she said:

_"Oh, there ain't no rest for the wicked."_

* * *

Sora was pacing.

He walked from the kitchen to the couch and back with Pluto trailing close behind. Sora was pacing because he'd seen other people do it when they had problems, they'd become restless and make hand gestures. He had tried to explain to Pluto that this pacing thing needed to be done alone, but apparently Pluto had problems of his own, so Sora let it slide. After his latest report card, which was, to say the least, unflattering (Sora was convinced Sephiroth himself had written the report – who else could convey such impeccable asshole behaviour in _writing_?) his parent's had convinced Roxas into tutoring him.

That's right.

_Roxas._

Needless to say, most of his tutor sessions did not go exactly 'well'.

"Sora. _Concentate_." Roxas harped, "Now, what have we learned about glycolysis?" Sora put on his thinking face, tapped a finger against his chin and glanced at the ceiling in a thoughtful manner. "ATP is… uh… converted to oxygen in the transport train…?"

"No," Roxas' voice portrayed his exasperation and weariness. His eyes flashed with irritation. "NADH and FADH2 are converted to ATP when—""

"Hold up! On the transport train?"

"On the electron transport _chain_."

"Right, right." Sora grinned sheepishly.

Roxas buried his head in his hands in a show of complete and utter despair. "You're _hopeless_." And after having his attitude compared unfavourably to that of a lackadaisical prostitute's, his face compared to numerous unlikely/ unhealthy body parts and intelligence to that of several species of farm animals Sora was beginning to believe it.

A pencil found its way into Sora's mouth and he nervously gnawed on it. "And this is the um, Kreb's cycle right?"

"See? You only _look_ stupid."

"Ah, jeez. _Thanks_."

After another 30 mintues of dutiful studying Sora was set free for the afternoon. He leapt up with an excited 'woohoo!' and flew to the nearest pile of clothing and began tearing off his school uniform and tore through various crumpled fabrics.

"Hey, is this a blouse? What is a _blouse_ doing in my room?"

"Hey, that's _mine_." Roxas snapped, snatching it from Sora's grasp. "And it's designer."

"What, Laura Ashley?" Sora snickered. Roxas felt his eye twitch.

Sora stood in front of his mirror, checking his reflection. Jeans, check. Funky shirt, check. Shoes, check.

"How do I look?"

"Like the love child of Wayne Sleep and Godzilla. _W_hat are you, the eight dwarf twatty? You know, even if you were from the future you'd _still_ be wrong." Roxas circled him a few times, looking him up and down. "Actually do you know what I like about this outfit?"

"What?"

"Fuck all."

Charming.

"Hey Dad! Can I have some money to go out?"

"Not this week, Sora."

"Why?"

"Because there's a credit crunch going on that's reduced the general availability of loans and caused a rise in official interest which means the banks are less likely to make risky investments which results in the liquidation of smaller, independent business which, in turn, slows down economic growth both nationally and worldwide."

"_T__hat's_ why I can't have my pocket money this week?"

"Yes."

"Really?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Oh." A pause. "Roxas said that you spent it gambling and lost it all to Uncle Cid."

"Did he now?"

"Uh-huh."

"Roxas."

"What?"

"You're grounded."

"**_What?_**"

Sora's eyes caught the clock. "Shit!" He stubbed his toe on the desk, "Late!" he slammed into the nearby wall, "Agh! I thought I was early for once, goddamn it!" He hopped blindly around his room, trying to rearrange his crap before leaving but decided it was just too late. He'd have to clean the mess later.

He had chaperoning duties to fulfill, after all.

* * *

It was quite the sight to see, a 5.9 ft teenage boy skipping along the street like a 4-year-old girl. Sora also would've liked to start singing 'I'm singing in the rain' but it wasn't raining, plus sometimes his voice reached levels that only dogs could hear, the last time that had happened Pluto had to be taken to the vet. Needless to say his spirits were rather high until— he faltered in his step when his gaze landed on the restaurant where he was supposed to meet Riku and Selphie. It was an effort to prevent his jaw from dropping.

It _really_ was.

The walls were lined with the slivers of its antique, flowery wallpaper. The tables and chairs were made of a deep dark red wood, each with a pricey orchid vase centerpiece; the people sat at the tables were equally expensive-looking, boasting the appearance of the ritzy high-class. The floor was the same dark red as the furniture and empty save for the furnishings that occupied it; the maliciously minimalistic appearance of the interior only contributed to the restaurant's pretentious air. It positively _screamed _expensive - Sora and his near-anorexic wallet were not welcome there.

—And yet none of this seemed to register right then, because the only thing his mind could fixate on was the tall, lean figure of his ever-elusive guardian stood in front of the restaurant. His stomach dropped when he saw the Djinn glance over at Riku's emotionless face. This was most certainly _not_ a situation Sora was thrilled about. Horrified, he rushed forward, staring incredulously at Axel.

"What are you _doing_ here?"

A smirk appeared on the Djinn's face in response to his flabbergasted expression, "Me? Oh. Nothing. I was just passing through... Kettering... And I thought, hey I know someone who's gone to Kettering for the weekend…. Is there something wrong with that?"

"Yeah, actually - there is!" He felt his face heat up, suddenly feeling awkward and unsure what to do - he couldn't speak as freely with Riku there. "You can't just _appear_ in front of people I know."

Riku's eyes fickered between the two of them uncertainly, "Aren't you going to introduce your new… friend, Sora?"

"He's not a friend!" The brunet cried back, bristling as he stole a glance back at the smirk slowly blooming on Axel's face. _Bastard_. His mouth couldn't rally up a proper lie to explain the abrupt appearance of this boy in his life. Instead, it simply hung there like an open man-hole. Sora squirmed uncomfortably and glanced down at his feet resting tensely against the pavement. "I mean—He's not really, um—he's Axel." His cheeks felt like two glowing eyes on a stove. He didn't really know what he was so _embarrassed_ about—he wasn't ashamed of Riku or even Axel, but there was something about their meeting that felt as if it shouldn't occur.

"So… Secretan?" Axel said in that careless tone he so often employed, "That's an… _unusual_ name."

"It's Swiss." Riku clarified.

"Ah, Switzerland: the land of cuckoo clocks, no beaches and the theft of Jewish gold after the fall of Nazi Germany. Oh. Sorry, I expect _everyone_ says that."

Riku simply stared; his gaze offering no inkling of any thought that was churning behind his impassive face. "No, actually..."

Sora buried his face further into his hands as if to escape the situation entirely.

* * *

The restaurant was hushed and romantic, trembling in candlelight and caressed by the sound of violins. Riku looked about as comfortable as a novice fakir on a bed of particularly sharp nails, but Sora didn't notice (possibly the candlelight was not bright enough….?) All _Selphie_ knew was that her dreams had finally come true. _Her_ Riku had asked her out on a date. She knew he'd come around eventually.

She sighed dreamily. He always went to such extremes to keep them apart when _destiny_ was trying so hard to bring them together…

They were sat at the back of the restaurant. Sora somehow managed to tip over and catch the vase of orchids that acted as the table's centerpiece. He spared a couple of disinterested glances at Axel, and was unsurprised to find him looking comfortable and completely natural in the quiet. Why was he so damn _comfortable_ in a foreign place where he had just entered into? His presence felt so _different_ in the chair next to him (usually it was Riku or Kairi in that spot); it was so strange that his mouth couldn't even conjure up a topic of conversation; he instead fidgeted inertly with one of the provided napkins.

"How is it exactly that you know each other?" Selphie chirped gleefully, making her way over to Riku's side and latching onto his arm as she always did.

Shifting his focus onto the portrait hanging nearby, Sora bit the inside of his lip. "Oh, it's a very long and boring story, you wouldn't be interested…" He began, trying desperately to keep his voice from squeaking out of his larynx weakly. He had a habit of speaking rather high and soft when he had lied in his teen years. Sora began shredding the napkin in his possession hurriedly, as if it somehow displayed his secret connection to the boy sitting innocently beside him.

Glancing up, he found that was fixed with a relentless stare.

"On the contrary, I am _very_ interested." Riku affirmed, crossing his arms, shrugging himself out of Selphie's grasping clutches.

"I'm coachin' him to play basketball." Axel took over, much to Sora's relief. He'd always been a bad liar and having Riku's eyes burning into him only exploited this weakness.

Riku's even stare fell back onto Sora. "I didn't know you played basketball."

"Well, I don't know if _play_ is the right word to describe Gramp's performance on the court." Axel cocked his head to the side and smirked. Sora scowled at the Djinn briefly before peering at Riku over his menu; he noted his friend's face was an interesting shade of green today. He voiced the thought from behind the protection of his menu.

"I'm fine." Riku sighed.

"You look like you did after that time you ate that rotten hotdog."

"It was a cheeseburger." Riku corrected faintly, turning a shade greener at the memory, "But yeah, yeah, fine. Bit of a wobble on the way here - I proposed to a woman in a coffee shop and tried to get myself run over, but I'm fine, really."

Selphie's heart fluttered. Oh, poor wounded angel.

"Ok…" Sora said slowly, "That is maybe a sign that everything isn't _totally_ groovy."

Just then the waiter arrived and Riku returned to his menu, ordering some complicated dish, which he pronounced perfectly. The entire table and waiter then turned to Sora expectantly.

He gave his biggest grin. "Do you have any pizza?" Sora asked hopefully.

The waiter looked a little patronizingly at the brunet, "Only what there is on the menu."

"Oh." Sora went back to the menu sticking the tip of his tongue out as he looked at the dishes which all had silly sounding names. The waiter started to tap his pen against his pad of paper. He ended up ordering by closing his eyes and picking whatever dish his finger landed on. He stuck his tongue out at the waiter when he left.

During the time it took for the food to arrive Selphie began busying herself prying information out of Riku. All subjects seemed to be touchy; Riku's family was a no-go area, as were his likes and dislikes. Riku spent the majority of this time shuffling as far right as possible; Selphie was defiling the space slowly, but surely.

_God bless him,_ Sora thought. He really was so _shy_.

Axel appeared to be on a one-man mission to get as much food into him as possible. For several minutes, the air around them remained suspended in a heavy, thick silence and a glower appeared on Sora's face as he continued to inhale food_. _Obviously Axel's alien presence was making them uncomfortable and ruining the mood. He'd worked so hard to arrange this and Axel was ruining it! Wasn't he supposed to be _helping_ him?

"_Stop pissing on the bonfire!"_ Sora discreetly mouthed behind the cover of his menu.

"_There is no bonfire."_ The Djinn mouthed back.

The brunet glowered. _"That's because you keep__** pissing**__ on it!"_

At some point, a competition developed, and both were eating as fast as humanly possible, glancing up now and again to glare at the other.

Selphie sent a disgusted look in the pair's general direction. Axel quirked a questioning eyebrow, "What? It's eat as much as you can."

"No, it's eat as much as you'd _like_. There's no competitive element involved."

Axel smirked, "At 3 munny per head, I think I know who's winning." Selphie scrunched her nose in disgust at his less than pleasant burp.

Riku took a sip of water to clear the obstruction in his throat, "What do you think of when I say the word 'Switzerland,' to you, Selphie?" Sora's eyes widened, amazement mingled with jubilation. _Riku_ was starting the conversation... This was a _good_ sign. Maybe hope wasn't totally lost, after all.

"Oh, I don't know," Selphie gushed, eyes drinking in the way the candlelight complimented his pale features perfectly. "You've never said it to me before…"

"I'm saying it now." Riku pressed, "And don't say Phil Collins lives there."

Selphie's heart fluttered, noticing the way his lashes kissed high cheekbones; how his nose curved at all the right angles and how his lips contrasted a light pink against his overall complexion…

He looked like an _angel_…

Er, what had he said again?

Riku ran an exasperated hand through his hair. Selphie swooned before smiling brightly, desperately trying to follow the conversation.

"Shut your eyes, think of Switzerland," Riku directed, "What do you see?"

"Nothing."

"You must see _something_."

"I don't have a visual memory, sorry."

"Oh! Oh! I see something!" Axel piped up unexpectedly, "I see… I see… a chocolate Phil Collins coming out of a clock every hour, to tidy up his Nazi gold."

Sora sighed deeply, putting his face in his hands. _Please, just stay mute Axel, you social freak. _He had to salvage the atmosphere somehow, but how? He fumbled around for words, _any_ words to dispel the awkward silence that had engulfed their table.

"So.. uh… um… what did you have for breakfast?" He sank further into his chair wishing he could just _melt_ into the floor in silent mortification. Breakfast? That's the most romantic thing his brain could conjure? _Breakfast_?

"Why do you ask?" Riku said, leaning back into his chair, looking slightly less rigid than before.

"Ah, I mean, breakfast is the first step to everyday it's important… so you can spend the whole day full of energy…. and, er, vigour." Mentally he began hitting himself on the forehead, repeatedly, with both hands. Why. Did. He. Have. To. Be. _So. __**Stupid**_?

Riku's lips twitched upward. "Hm. Well this morning I had beans, egg and liver."

Selphie blinked. Liver? Her Prince Charming liked _liver? _Her eyes met Axel during the surveillance. He was sitting there calmly, eyes flitting between the two boys in a similar manner. Only some surprise showed on the redhead's face.

Apparently the revelation was news to him too.

Axel continued to gaze at him, and it wasn't the fact that Riku liked liver that had fazed the redhead… It was his expression.

He knew _that _expression, Axel had realised with sudden shock. And it wasn't directed at _her_.

It was directed at—

A wicked leer stretched the Djinn's face, and Sora regarded him warily. He could only liken it to a grin Roxas had wore that time a lion had ripped off one of the performer's skirts in a circus they went to see.

"Well, if this isn't as predictable as a Tara Reid nipple slip," Axel said, looking endlessly pleased.

* * *

"So Riku, are you ready for Monday's Maths test, yet?" Sora asked as Axel ordered him a drink and casually slung his arm around the brunet's shoulders.

Sora smiled awkwardly at Axel and turned his attention back to Riku.

"Yes." His friend answered, voice suddenly a _very_ forced calm.

Axel's grip on Sora tightened and he pulled the boy closer, delighting with the way Riku's hands tightened on the glass. "Careful now Secretan, you wouldn't want to draw attention would you?"

"Wouldn't that be _your _modus operandi?" He replied, remaining as expressionless as he seemed to be able to muster. There was something _wrong_ with Riku's voice, Sora noted, it echoed with more resonance and flaunted a deeper, more rumbling undertone.

"I suppose," Axel's meaningless smile broadened. " But then again, I have no need for subtetly. Love conquers all boundaries, even gender and society's skewed view of sexuality. Isn't that right, Gramps?"

An unpleasant sensation crawled down Sora's back. He opened his mouth and threw out an uncertain; "What?"

"No need to play dumb, dearest." _Dearest?_ Sora's eyes snapped to Axel, in front of him. His lips flaunted the most teasing, arrogant, asshole-ish smirk he had ever seen depicted on that face.

"If Riku accepts our love, then why must we hide it any longer?" Selphie turned to adoringly watch the red-haired boy's confession, a faint blush on her cheeks. Riku's eyes hardened slightly in what Axel could pick - quite easily - out of a crowd as one of the most severe of contempts.

"I always had such a crush on you—" Sora's eyes popped as he stared dubiously. "I'd watch you everyday as you walked out of class so frustrated, and I'd wish to hold you and make you feel better. I'd see you walk down the street alone, and curse my terrible shyness that I could not trot beside you and hold your hand." Axel put his chin in his palm; his green eyes crinkled in amusement as the monologue swelled with artificiality, "No girl in that entire school could rival your beauty."

Riku took a sip of his water and slammed the glass back down on the table harder than was necessary. A few people cast scolding looks in their direction and continued on with their conversations.

"It sure is hot in here, don't you think, Selphie?" Sora suddenly exclaimed, worming his way out from under Axel's loosened grip. "How have you been anyway? It's been so long since we've talked." A glass was placed in front of Sora, and he took a sip of the tea Axel had ordered him as he waited for Selphie's reply.

"Good." She had a distracted expression on her face as she stared at Riku dreamily. Her lack of commitment to the conversation didn't seem to deter the brunet in any way, however. "That's good. I've been pretty bored lately. Doing homework and studying have been the only things on my schedule," he indulged with a bright grin.

A devious smirk latched itself firmly on the Djinn's thin lips as he turned his attentions. "Selphie was it? – I hear you've got the hots for Riku here." Riku's eyes burned, dagger-like. _"_Baby, it's a shame he's The Big Triple."

"The Big Triple?" Selphie ventured.

"Yeah, y'know…" He looked her over pensively, a hand on his chin, as if he were surveying merchandise of some sort, "The _Big Triple_: uninterested, unavailable and repulsed."

Selphie glanced around, blushing furiously, then whipped back in horror as what he said penetrated her embarrassment. She made a sound like a duck with a cracker caught in its throat. "What did you just say?" She garbled, waving her hands in the air in a fantastic imitation of an epileptic seizure.

"That girl is cruelly deprivin' a village somewhere of an idiot." Axel declared to the other boys sardonically.

Selphie stopped flailing and loomed behind the table. "What are you talking about?"

"You're barkin' up the wrong tree, he's a horse of a different colour, he can't think _straight._" Axel said evocatively. Feeling as though something vital had skimmed pleasantly over his head, Sora quirked an eyebrow.

Selphie was silent for a long time as she absorbed the meaning of Axel's words, the curled ends of her hair quivered in unspeakable fury. She made a few indistinguishable, outraged noises, hand-gestures, and faces at him before she _finally_ managed something coherent.

"You little **BITCH****!**"

The words tumbled out quickly and _way_ too loud, in the mortified stillness of the restaurant, the violins hit a sour note and strangled themselves into silence. The restaurant seemed to thrum slightly all around them. Axel exploded into a fit of laughter that nearly knocked him off his chair and made the candle on the next table over go out.

Then there was a lot of yelling.

A crash.

An unidentifiable, wet, sponge-on-wall sound.

More yelling.

Perhaps the most surprising: Man-giggles and the broken cry of "stoppit!"

A she-roar.

More thumps, crashes, and flickers.

People who hadn't already looked up from their meals were glancing about the room in confusion. Some patrons there took advantage of the sudden darkness to make a run for the door. Even with his focus on the commotion, Sora still managed to see the sudden smugness on Riku's face.

"You know, for the worst thing that could've _possibly_ happened, I think this is going quiet well, don't you?"

* * *

When they were at least a safe mile away Sora released his white-knuckled grip on Axel's wrist. Immediately the redhead began rubbing the blotch with his long fingers, glaring sullenly at Sora.

The brunet spun around completely to glare back at him properly. "_Well?_"

"I was waitin' on _you_ to initiate conversation. It's typically what the host does."

"Really?" Sora stated sardonically as he deposited his elbow onto his knee, to rest his head in his palm. "Where did you get that crap? An 18th century guide to etiquette?"

"A 19th century guide actually."

"Oh ha, ha, you're _hilarious_."

Squatting down, Axel regarded him flatly. "I wasn't joking at all."

Sora's gaze lifted. He had that stupid grin on his face, just like always. What _nerve_ he had to wear that cocky smile when—

"You ruined _everything!_"

"Oh _puh-lease_. I was doin' her a favour. I mean, did you see that guy's vest? Should any man really be _that_ friendly with spandex?"

"Riku's vest isn't _spandex_." Sora squinted in his confusion, "And what is _that_ supposed to mean anyway? _Superheroes_ wear spandex. It's like… standard superhero clothing. Look at them all. Superman, Batman, Spiderman, any and all of X-men…"

"So what? I'm telling you, if you saw a guy in a blue leotard with red underpants running around with a cape, the first word in your mind won't be 'superhero'. Besides, Superheroes are inclined to like other_guys_." The Djinn said and paused for a dramatic, pointed look at Sora.

Which he completely missed.

"Oh really? Name one."

"Batman." Axel's unhesitating answer threw Sora off a little.

"Batman?"

"Yeah, Gramps, Batman. Why do you think he has _Robin_ around?"

"Robin is a sidekick."

"Yeah, in more ways than one. Look at it this way – dark cave, two men alone in there, _all the time_, and they both have a thing for spandex. The Batcave: that's where the action _really_ is."

"What about Superman? He has Lois Lane, a perfectly heterosexual thing."

"One word: closet."

"Hey, not _all_ Superheroes are gay."

Axel sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You're kinda missing the _whole_ point of this conversation."

"Look, I don't care about gay Superheroes!" Sora exclaimed, walking into the wide alley between two high, ritzy apartment buildings beside him. This was the lighter side of town; the part of the city where the street lamps flickered on at 8 O'clock sharp and turned the pristine neighborhood into a glowing, orange jewel that was too large to steal. Rubbish was placed in the proper reciprocals and the only people you had to worry about were the preoccupied joggers tugging a small, spoiled dog around on a leash. "What I _do_ care about is why you were there today!"

"I'm a musician, in case you'd forgotten and I answer to a higher law. The law of: '_If It Feels Good, Do It'."_

"Oh, that's a great law." Sora said wryly, "What is that, Gaddafi's law?"

Axel followed him into the alley and reclined languidly against the wall as if he owned it, "It's the _musician's_ law. Colonel Gaddafi could not lay down a bass hook, Gramps. That should be clear even to you."

Sora glowered, "You _still_ haven't answered my question."

"Isn't there a saying in life: "Whatever you don't know makes you stronger"?"

"_No. _Now how did you know I'd be there?"

Green eyes rolled skyward. "Are you truly this much of an idiot? I've been watching you - I'm _supposed_ to be keepin' an eye on you, remember? It's my _job_." He emphasized sardonically, bestowing Sora with the same flippant attitude he had dealt a week ago.

Blue eyes narrowed distrustfully. "Then how come I haven't spotted you over the last three days?"

"I'm very sneaky and even if I wasn't, I'd never have caught your attention anyway—you were always too busy talkin' to yourself and moanin' about somethin' or another." Axel waved his hand heedlessly. "It's a thankless job I do, but I've got Karma to burn."

In an instance all previous traces of frustration flaked off Sora like dry mud and uneasiness boiled in his stomach. The fact that Axel had just casually admitted to _ogling_ him for the past three days made him feel violated; as if his skin was transparent and anyone could see anything they pleased.

"Well... don't." He murmured uncomfortably.

The Djinn leaned back on his hands and gazed pensively at him, "It's not as if I _want_ to, in fact, usually I don't."

"Then why are you here _now_?"

Axel retained eye contact even though he appeared reluctant to do so, "Why?" His pupils seemed to glaze over, "There are lotsa reasons. I didn't come just to pester you, if you think that's one of them."

Sora looked up.

"Although, it is a perk, I admit."

A frown appeared on the brunet's face. _Maybe it would've been simpler to just kill him. I should know how to kill someone by now. I've watched enough CSI. _"You're doing it again!" He exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at the Djinn, "You keep skirting around my questions!"

"Do I?" Axel queried sarcastically as he leaned back on his palms.

"Yes you do." Sora said firmly. "You do it all the time! Now stop saying something vague and undescriptive, like a… a… vague and undescriptive _arsehole_ and answer me properly."

The Djinn's smirk inched into an irritated frown, as if all his jovial fun was spoilt by the other's persistence; his features attempted a smirk, but he seemed too troubled to complete it properly. "Honestly? I didn't have much of a choice in the matter."

"How very clear and descriptive," Sora replied, dryly. "You're so full of shit, you know that?"

The leer on Axel's face was reminiscent of the smug curl that had enveloped his lips earlier. "Then it seems we have somethin' else in common. You can be a manipulative little bitch too, y'know? The blackmail was a particularly nice touch in my opinion. I felt us bond a bit right then. You're disgustin'. But I like it. Like going to a strip club with the Pope."

Eyes widening, Sora found himself feeling abruptly sick…how did he know about?

"I've been forced to follow you. How much more do I have to say it to get the point through your thick skull?" Axel sighed, rubbing his temples with two long fingers and Sora was strongly reminded of Roxas' irate habit of shoving his hands in his pockets.

_Forced?_ "Sounds less like a job and more like a punishment."

Axel snorted grimly. "It's more complicated than that but fundamentally? Yes."

The listless tone pulled a nerve in Sora's jumbled mind and his eyes snapped open. "And?"

"_And_ a question for a question." Axel reminded him mockingly of their first meeting. "Balance is what keeps this world in check, after all."

"We're _still _doing that?" Sora asked incredulously.

"Yes." Axel affirmed, "And you're asking out of turn _again_. Now: what's Plan 2?"

Sora blinked. "You mean Plan B."

"Plan B, 2, what's the _difference_?"

"Wait, wait, wait—what's Plan _B-2_?

Axel groaned loudly. "Oh, you have _got_ to be kiddin' me. I don't know what makes you so dumb, but it's _really_ workin'."

Sora felt a rush of anger sweep through his veins. He spun around and prepared to expel a lengthy list of places that the Djinn could go to when the boy lifted his palm in a halting manner.

"D'ya _really_ wanna fight when you're so eager for answers? I'd prefer it if you didn't open your mouth and distract me, if it's so _very_ important to you."

"I – fine." His mouth clicked reluctantly shut.

"See? That wasn't so hard." The Djinn's leer widened and his eyes danced with amusement. "Y'know, you're cuter when you're silent."

Sora wrestled the intense urge to rip his dumb lips off his face. "You know, you've been nothing but trouble since we got here so you better start explaining some things real quick unless you want to be pummeled to the ground."

Axel smirked carelessly. "I'd like to see you get offa your fat ass and try."

Deciding to avoid another needless argument Sora pressed the Djinn. "What did you do to Larxene?"

"What to whom?" Axel repeated with a decided lack of interest. Sora scowled deeply. He was quickly coming to learn that the Djinn was slipperier than an avocado stone when it came to avoiding questions he didn't want to answer and, left the slightest crack, he'd slip right through it.

"You know _exactly_ what I mean, ass-face._"_

Axel leered haughtily. "Oh _that_. I was just granting your wish."

"Wish? Wish? What wish?" _Unless.._. Sora's eyes flew open wide, his jaw dropping almost comically wide. _Is he…? Is he talking about...?_

_(I just wish she liked me, that's all!)_

"That wasn't a wish! It was a _figure of speech_! And when I said 'like' I didn't mean—" He made vain hand gestures, flushing a dark red. "I didn't mean it like _that_!"

"What am I, a mind-reader?" Axel queried mildly. Sora's eyes narrowed. Something (probably the large, satisfied smirk plastered on his obnoxious face) told him Axel knew _exactly_ what he had meant and what he _hadn't_ meant. "Besides, ain't the pot is calling the kettle black here? Seems I'm not the only one who can be accused of being _vague_ and _undescriptive_ in our little tag-team. Maybe you should be more concise when you make a wish."

Sora looked more than dumbfounded, more than stunned… it was as though his entire world had been taken firmly by the shoulders and shaken senseless. His brain no longer felt employable towards productive tasks. It was as though it was bulging with too much information, too much change that had occurred in his once-mundane-predictable life.

Sighing, Sora diverted his full, but tired, attention on the exhausting red-head. "What were you _thinking_?"

"I wasn't." Axel replied simply, abruptly looking as tired and exasperated as his counterpart, "Your wish is _literally_ my command."

"No!" Sora cut across him. "No, no, NO! No more bullshit! First you pull that stunt at the restaurant… and you come to my home and...you follow me _everywhere, spy _on me and now you—you-you do_that_ to Larxene-" Sora's voice, which had been steadily rising, was now reverberating through the barren stalls and tiled walls. "I mean what good will that do, anyway?"

"I never said my wishes were supposed to do anyone good. In fact, I swore that they would always do as much harm as possible." The Djinn said, jovially, snickering.

"What's so _funny_?" Sora demanded, stung by the way Axel didn't seem to take him seriously.

"You are." The Djinn merely snorted at the affronted expression on Sora's face. "Quit being so _stupid_."

"I'm not _being_ stupid!" Sora argued, lip curling into a defensive sneer, "I'm being very _real _with you here and you're just throwing it back in my face and making me look like an idiot!"

... _depreciating how I feel._

_(Can't you ever take anything seriously and not invalidate it?)_

Sora clenched his eyes shut and flinched at the unspoken reference to Riku. His face hardened instinctively as he replaced that feeling of inescapable sadness with anger so hot he felt his breath catch. After what seemed like an eternity of collecting himself and trying not to fall victim to his volcanic anger, Sora finally ground out in as composed a voice as possible:

"You know what I think?"

___(You can't take anything seriously. Everything has to be a big **joke** to you)_

Axel eyed him lazily.

His furious gaze lifted and isolated Axel. "I think you're dicking with me."

"If only." The Djinn said despondently. He then looked up, as if surprised, to find Sora's expression truly infuriated.

"You don't need to be here!" Sora cried, gesticulating wildly, "You don't _have to_ be here! You could be off doing… doing _whatever it is_ you do!"

A loose tendril of hair slid over Axel's left eye. "That's not necessarily true—"

"You need to watch me – got it. But you don't need to be around me at all! You said so yourself, didn't you?"

_(Did it ever occur to **you** that Riku's my friend?)_

_(You have no idea how much it **hurts**.)_

He glared at Axel _—__hard__— _ because the bastard didn't care. He didn't_ fucking care_!

"Look, you really don't understand at all." Axel interrupted, peering at him sternly. "If you'd only let me explain and stop _yelling_—" He thieved a cautious step forward.

_—_But Sora _wasn't_ listening because it didn't _matter_ to Axel. It didn't matter that his actions could have repercussions, that they might ruin somebody's life, it didn't_ matter_ so long as he got a cheap laugh out of it. It didn't_ matter_ to him that it might lead to a future where Kairi and Riku were reluctant acquaintances at best and strangers at worst, where he'd be afraid to come home from work for fear of seeing tears glistening in Kairi's eyes_— _Oh God, he didn't want to remember Kairi like that, _Riku_ was bad enough_—_where Riku had _changed_, where he aimed spiteful eyes at everyone and anyone, where his were lips constantly tight in a severe frown, where a dark mean energy seeped from every pore of his skin, where Sora hadn't been able to reach Riku that time or another, where Sora couldn't say sorry, where he couldn't get rid of his guilt, where he couldn't shake the feeling that everything was somehow all his fault but was forever wondering—

___(You just... you just don't understand)_

He didn't_care__— _but _Sora_ would be the one to pay the price.

___________(You **never** understand)_

"**GO!**" Sora howled, his voice rising into strident, ear-splitting decibels. "You don't have to be around me! I'll figure this out on my own and THEN you come near me once I've finished!"

What the hell did Axel know anyway?

_—__he just had to get this resolved or he was going to scream so loud that_—

Axel's arm was still extended, as if he was trying to calm a bucking horse and Sora _felt_ like an animal, an animal trapped with nowhere to run. He _hated _that feeling; the feeling of being cornered. It was an abhorrence that struck at his very basic nature; an animalistic instinct to avoid any situation which thrust him against a wall and left him caged. Sora did the only thing he could.

He fled.

Faintly, he heard someone shout his name, but he didn't even turn his head.

* * *

Sora went straight upstairs to his bedroom without a word to anyone that night, collapsing by his windowsill. He understood the anger was there, he could feel it throbbing warningly underneath his thoughts, but he just couldn't accept it right then. He just couldn't grasp it without doing something hysterical like decimating his room.

_Why?_

His breathing hitched and familiar dull pain beat within his chest at the mere thought of it.

Why did… Why had… Why was… Why is… Why? Why? _Why? Why? Why?_

_Why had everything __changed?_  


He bit his lip to stop it from trembling. He didn't like to think about it. Every time he revisited those memories he inevitably started unpacking every spoken word and every action in the hopes he'd be able to fix the mess.

He knew he couldn't.

Sora swallowed and clenched his eyes shut, refusing to watch the drop of water that landed on his hand. Tears were definitely _not_ forming in his eyes and he definitely _did not _want to run into the living room and be held by his mother while he cried.

He looked up and out at a night sky that was littered with a multitude of stairs. The world above that shared his namesake had always comforted him in the way that it always ended up the way it had started, forever seeming to be eternally still. Never changing. It was somewhat of a peculiar comfort; peculiar in the way it taunted him by being unattainable and yet it comforted him because it proved to him that at least one thing in his life would remain constant. He needed that sort of comfort when it felt as if the world were shifting beneath his feet, rolling away as he struggled to keep up.

Sighing, he placed his head into his palms. At that moment he felt so hopelessly pinned by his past failures; he despised that suffocating feeling of entrapment more than anything else in the world. And that was why, when Axel appeared at his window moments later, perched like a proud cat, he let him in. ___I should be angry_, His mind produced uselessly over and over again, everything wrong in his universe at this moment was _Axel's_ fault, but no fury bubbled to the surface. Because_—_

"Axel..."

"Hm?"

"Tell me more about Djinn."

"That's a very broad topic, Gramps." Axel sounded much older than he had before and it occurred to the brunet that maybe this was the actual, raw self beneath the mocking pretense.

Sora's bottom lip slid into his mouth and he quietly gnawed it, wondering whether or not the next topic was safe territory, "Then tell me more about you."

Axel's voice instantly became a chord deeper and slightly crisper. "Broader still."

—Because—

_(There are lotsa reasons. I didn't come just to pester you, if you think that's one of them)_

—Because—

___(Honestly? I didn't have much of a choice in the matter)_

—Because—___  
_

_____(It seems we have somethin' else in common)_  


—Because Sora felt that he might be trapped too.

* * *

**Note: **I'm probably going to cringe over how sloppily this chapter was written later buuuuuuut I literally couldn't stand editing anymore!

Thanks for reading, once again x


	6. Talk Show Host

**Author's Note: **Chapter 6 already! My baby is growing!

Anyway just to clear things up: to **Flying Pencil**, yes, there shall be AkuRoku, though it'll be quite gradual, though more pronounced after this chapter. Another important thing is that this chapter runs **parallel to chapter 4 **from Roxas' POV. Thought it'd be a nice spin to give a different perspective on things...

This chapter's theme is _'Talk Show Host' _by Radiohead (trivia: one of my favourite songs ever)!

Slight **warning**: some language, underage drinking, mention of drugs, nothing too heavy. All in the name of humour.

Thanks for reading!

* * *

**Chapter 6:**

Talk Show Host

You want me?  
_Fucking well come and find me  
_I'll be waiting  
_With a gun and a pack of sandwiches  
_And nothing  
_Nothing  
__Nothing  
...nothing._

* * *

For as long as Roxas could remember he had always _hated_ rules. Whenever a rule was presented to him he felt the need to stealthily strike at it, annihilate something that signified defined categorisation. When he was much younger he'd do something frenzied like demolish his room, tearing down all his posters and hurling his CDs against the wall in a sightless fury; it made him feel more in control by destroying the organisation; by creating a mess of the rules.

It was at this time he felt truly absolute.

But now, his room had lost its amazing ability to satisfy him and, as a teenager, he needed a larger rebellion than it could provide him with; he desired to act upon something that defied the very heart of society and law.

—And that was why he was sitting cross-legged on the floor of one of the spacious rooms in Xigbar's Twilight Town apartment, with a cigarette looped in between in his lips.

The apartment building had a lobby in which a crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling and sparkled like an enormous disco ball. There were leather chairs, coffee tables, pictures, and a gigantic library-style fireplace. The heavy oak doors were few and far between, which led Roxas to believe that this building had rooms three times the size of his house. Xigbar had his own floor, his own apartment, his own car, his own fridge, his own _everything_.

"This place is amazing, Xig. How can you afford it all?" Luxord wondered aloud.

"Well I guess I've just been very lucky." Xigbar replied, "Money's an energy and lots of it has always flowed towards me. Particularly after my parents died."

Luxord's eyes were wide and glittering with amazement.** "**_Cosmic_."

Earlier that year, ever since Roxas had skipped two years because of advanced placement, he and Xigbar's crowd had struck up a sort of illicit friendship. What had attracted him to Xigbar and his delinquent company wasn't the smoking, or the tattoos, or even being able to jump the lunch queue due to the intimidation (although that _was_ great) it was the change; it was one that Roxas found somewhat addictive. They didn't match the clean-cut model that, say, Sora usually kept company with - Xigbar's crowd was rowdy, troublesome and liked drinking/drugs/minor acts of vandalism on the weekends.

"I've some extremely distressing news." Zexion announced as he sauntered out of the kitchen.

"I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear anything!" Demyx whined, voice was all over the scale. "Oh God, it's a nightmare, I tell you, it's a nightmare!"

Without pause Zexion went on; "We just ran out of booze. What are we going do about it?"

"I don't know, _I don't know_." Demyx whispered frantically. Every one of his muscles was thrumming. He looked a percussion orchestra in the middle of some particularly vigorous concert. "Oh God, I don't feel good. Look, my thumbs have gone weird! I'm in the middle of a bloody overdose. Oh God. My heart's beating like a fucked clock! I feel dreadful, I feel _really _dreadful!"

"So do I, so does _everybody_. Look at my tongue; it's wearing a yellow sock." Zexion said calmly. Roxas raised a lone eyebrow. "Sit down for Christ's sake, what's the matter with you? Eat some sugar."

On the adjacent couch Xigbar yawned openly and rubbed his eyes. "Jesus Roxas, why didn't _you_ bang one?"

The blond boy inhaled deeply on the cigarette. He didn't really like smoking, it made him feel like he had swallowed hot charcoal, but the liberating feeling it instilled was enough to bare the raw, flaming sensation in his throat. Capturing the smoke in his mouth, he slowly allowed it to spill from his lips. **"**Maybe because I didn't want to wake up dribbling in a phone box with a trucker's penis in my ear?"

"Hey, that only happened to me _one _time..."

"Luxord's got the booze sorted," Zexion stated. He grabbed a notepad that was on the table and ticked off something on a list he had made. "How is music coming along?"

"Demyx came up with a bass loop for our new track that is _so_ good, that when he tried turning it off... he couldn't. He _physically_ couldn't do it."

Satisfied, Xexion ticked off another item on his list. He looked up at Demyx. "Did you bring all the napalm and glass bottles I asked you to?"

"I'll have you know I had some very important matters to attend to this weekend."

"Demyx how many times must we go over this? A carton of chocolate milk, a small bag of marijuana and a pirated copy of Anchorman are _not_ important things." Xexion muttered, scribbling on his note pad with intense concentration. He took these parties very seriously, then again, Zexion took _everything _seriously. In all their time as friends Roxas could not recall an instance when he had actually ever smiled.

Roxas hazily watched the gray, wispy smoke rings from his cigarette spiral upwards to the ceiling, noting absently the way it seemed to evaporate as it collided against the paneling. "You're making petrol bombs? Well, this wasn't what I expected." He said wryly. "You think you're going to play Simpsons Monopoly, and you end up an arsonist."

Zexion looked up from his notepad. "You're in a particularly foul mood today, Roxas. Anything you care to share with the group?"

A picture of a red-haired bastard popped up in his mind. Roxas groaned inwardly. He felt like bashing his head on the marble floor, but he didn't. He didn't want to ruin his image. "No."

"You finally catch Secretan feeling up Sora or something?" Zexion drawled monotonously.

Roxas gaped at him. "How do _you_ know about that?"

"Well, for one I have _eyes__. _It's not that hard to put two and two together."

"Must be really awkward," Xigbar sympathised, "Knowing that he wants to bone your brother an' all."

Running a hand through his hair distractedly, Roxas mused, "'Bone your brother.' Ugh, it sounds so much worse when you say it like that."

"Can't blame him though - that boy has a _great_ ass."

"Please never say that again," Roxas managed weakly. "Ever. Especially about _Sora_."

"But your brother's a real sweetheart." Xigbar's eyes lit up eagerly. "It's really easy to see how a certain _someone _could be completely and totally in love with—"

"I really hope you're talking about Kairi," Roxas growled, "Because the next person to tell me about Riku's _stupid_ infatuation—"

"Now, now…" Xigbar leaned forward casually and draped his arms around Roxas' neck. "Don't be so touchy."

"We all know why you're _really_ upset," Demyx exclaimed happily from behind them. "It's because that kid wasn't been around lately."

"_Like Hell." _Roxas felt more defensive than he liked, and he knew he was acting it too. His temper flared, but not dangerously enough to save him from the collective psycho-analysis. He took another drag, feeling sullenly bitter at the new topic that threatened to arise between them.

Axel, the blond had begrudgingly learned, possessed the unique (and highly _irritating_) ability to pop up at any given time, at any given place and frighten the living crap out of him. It was almost as if he was warning him he was always _there_. For the past three days Axel had taken to jumping into his life at random intervals; Tuesday morning, he accompanied him on his walk to school. Wednesday afternoon, he fabricated an extravagant story to explain his sudden appearance to Roxas in the grocery store, Thursday, he had appeared outside of Xigbar's smirking like an untamed wildcat. And here Roxas was today, feeling slightly confused and all around mixed about Axel's absence.

Turning up the volume on the radio, he solemnly hoped that all thoughts of perverted stalkers would dissipate like whispers in a crowd. Xigbar watched him for a minute before speaking again.

"I think you're fuckin' with me."

Roxas removed Xigbar's arm from his shoulders. "You can think whatever the hell you want."

"You _are_ fuckin' with me. You _like_ it when he's fawnin' all over you."

_No way. No way in hell. _"Shut up_._"

Xigbar was swelling with keen interest, his eyes glittering. "I _knew_ it." Xigbar's face was laughing. "You think he's _pretty_, don't you?"

Roxas frowned, holding his cigarette. "No."

"You think he's _really_ pretty, don't you?"

"_No_." He was _not_ thinking about this. He wasn't budging on this subject. _Nope, nope, nope._

"You think he's _gorgeous_."

"_No!_"

Xigbar was really laughing at him now. "It's because he is, isn't it? Jesus! You little whore."

"Shut _up_!" Roxas slammed his cigarette into the waiting ashtray, Xigbar still smirking at him knowingly. Okay, so maybe he _was_ thinking about this, just a little. Okay, so maybe he wasn't just thinking about it a little; maybe he was thinking about it a lot.

A fiery look sprang into Roxas' eyes. "So what if I did? —which I _don't!— _So _what!_ It doesn't fucking matter!"

Xigbar's tones were triumphant. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"Yeah, _right_."

Roxas gritted his teeth fearsomely, but knew he was beaten. That's exactly why he never came around Xigbar when he had problems - the man would always tell him the straight truth that he sure as hell didn't need or want to hear.

* * *

The next morning Roxas' head throbbed mercilessly, and a foul, persistent taste lingered in his mouth. His skull felt like it had been crushed and the rest of his body wasn't much better. He forced himself into a sitting position; with distaste, he realised he was wearing the previous night's clothes.

Needless to say he felt like shit.

A lowly, confused pile of shit.

Settling for a quick breakfast he groggily dragged the cereal box out of the overhead cupboard; distantly he heard the faint humming of a certain sibling he did _not_ want to meet at this hour. He proceeded to open the fridge and reached for the milk carton, only to find it felt suspiciously light. He tipped it over his bowl and gave a few futile shakes.

"GAH!" He flung the carton aside in irritation. _Exactly what sort of asshole puts empty containers back into the fridge for the next (innocently) hungry guy searching for food?_

Roxas looked up from his hunched position on the kitchen counter to see that Sora had just skipped into the room, looking disgustingly cheerful.

_Only the biggest kind._ "You little_ slut_."

The humming stopped. "What?"

"I said good morning."

As usual anything short of murder slid off his dim-witted brother like liquid does a linoleum surface. "Hey Roxy, what's that on your coat?" Sora inquired innocently, leaning close enough to finger the lapel of his clothing. Roxas arched like an agitated cat.

"What's_ what?_" He hissed.

"Those silver lines, there and there, and here." An obnoxious finger traced the silver lines that raced across his jacket. Roxas batted away the offending appendage irritably.

"… snails."

A period of silent seconds passed as Roxas waited for Sora's thick skull to conceive the idea.

"Did you say _snails_?"

"Yeah, _snails_."

"How—?"

"I went to a party last night... and woke up in the garden."

"Oh ha, ha," Sora stated sardonically, "You must be a hit with all the ladies."

Roxas scowled. "I _wasn't_ joking."

"Do you have any coffee?"

Roxas' entire being jumped nine feet in the air and he whipped around in the direction of the third voice. Tidus sprawled lethargically on the living room couch stroking Pluto and for the briefest of seconds Roxas expelled a discreet breath of relief. For a moment his mind had jumped to the conclusion that it would inevitably be—

Sora scratched his head and made his way to the correct kitchen cupboard, "Uh, yeah. In there." He said, vaguely motioning Tidus in the direction of the coffee.

"Good," Tidus said. The hand that was petting Pluto's mangy brown fur paused in its administration to jerk a thumb at Roxas. "Because he looks like shit."

Roxas wasn't listening. He dug through the cabinets, through the fridge, but no matter where he looked, he couldn't seem to find—

The blond growled, stomping toward his brother like a peeved rhinoceros. "You son of a bitch!"

Sora blinked. "Ummm…what?"

"You know very well what!" The blond thundered. Sora stared back with doe eyes. "I told you not to touch it! I told you I wanted it last night!" When Sora _still _showed no signs of understanding, Roxas threw his hands up into the air and harped, "You ate my last fucking waffle!"

The brunet laughed it off, scratching his head in that sheepish way he always did, "Ah, hah, you see, I was _reeeally _hungry. I figured you wouldn't be mad because your beloved brother would have _starved _without it." Roxas' face turned red and his teeth ground together audibly. Sora expelled a shaky laugh, "Or maybe not...?"

Roxas winced as an unidentified screech intensified the merciless throbbing in his head. In his sluggish state of mind, it took Roxas a few moments of forced comprehension to realise that it was the doorbell.

"That must be the personality delivery with your's." Sora uttered saucily before taking a generous bite out of a strawberry pop tart. He smiled a wide grin in his amusement, revealing a set of jam-tainted teeth.

_Digusting. _Roxas sneered, "Hopefully your new face will be with it – we'll save on the postage." Again, Sora just _smiled_.

Why? Why was he _surrounded_ by crazy people?

The doorbell gave another insistent ring.

"I'm coming!" he yelled, sounding more irritable than he meant to. Roxas marched to the door and pushed it open, the force almost knocking it off of its hinges. He scowled viciously when it revealed the person he least wanted to see stood on the other side.

_Riku._

He glared.

He glared harder than he'd ever glared before.

He glared the glare to end all glares.

"You've reached the Strife residence. Either I don't know you or I hate you. I'd prefer that you don't leave a message, but if you _have_ to, leave it after the fucking beep... Beep."

"I'm here for Sora." Riku stated, blue-green eyes flashing through long, silver hair.

_"_Oh, I bet you_ are."_ The blond replied with distain.

Riku looked at him with something that could only have been described as extreme irritation. "Look Roxas, Sora's my best friend, and you're Sora's brother..." Oh no. He was using The Voice_._ _The Voice! _The mopey, forlorn, tortured-by-unrequited-love-Romeo voice! Roxas _hated_ The Voice. "I know we've never really been close but I don't know what I've done to make you _hate _me so much."

Roxas' reply was bitter where it echoed in his head, but he said nothing, choosing to meet Riku's gaze instead. The answer, of course, was because Riku had highly inappropriate thoughts about Sora, which, for some reason, seemed to Roxas to be an incredibly toxic component to their friendship. Sora (i.e. the patron saint of the completely oblivious, unwittingly sadistic morons) was far too innocent to be left alone with Riku and if Sora hadn't liked Riku so damn much, Roxas would have insisted that they stop hanging out at all.

"I was under the impression that you hated me first," said Roxas haughtily, "After all, you were the one who started giving me dirty looks whenever I walked to your house to pick Sora up. Care to explain?"

Riku sighed. "This is pointless. Can we get along or _not_?"

The blond continued to glare up suspiciously at Sora's best friend (he hadn't realised before just how _tall_ Riku was). He was largely apprehensive being alone with the other boy because, truthfully, he was the person who looked most like Sora in the entire world, and whenever Riku had dated previously, he'd chosen people who'd looked like Sora. More than anything, Roxas didn't want Riku forgetting who he was, or who he _wasn't_. He wanted Riku's hands to stay where they could see them and Riku's mouth not to venture anywhere it didn't have to...

And if it took a little bit of physical force to enforce that rule, well, so be it.

He wasn't some kind of... next-door fuck jar.

"Riku!" Sora's _loud_ voice called from behind him and the change in Riku was incredible. The word fluttered in the air for only half a second before Riku's stern lips melded into a warm smile. Suddenly it was as though he didn't exist – Sora occupied Riku's undivided attention.

Sora, of course, noticed nothing unusual in the older teen's conduct and just responded with his usual sunny smile. "What were you two talking about out here?"

Roxas coughed, Riku rushed in with; "Mr. Vexen. He's definitely taking undue interest in me. I've been getting unusually good grades in Chemistry recently."

"You're just so attractive," Roxas said dryly. "No one can resist."

Riku ignored him completely, focusing, as usual, on Sora. "He went on a tangent the other day about the ethics of human cloning, which had absolutely _nothing_ to do with what we were studying, and he was staring at me the entire time..."

That earned him a laugh and a bright smile. Roxas' eyes narrowed as Sora grabbed hold of Riku's wrist and dragged him into the living room, oblivious as he chattered incessantly. This whole situation would have been different had Roxas doubted Riku's intentions toward Sora, but they were _clearly_ about ninety-five percent impure. Roxas decided to eavesdrop on their conversation. He walked out of the living room, looking like he had the intention of leaving, but stopped just outside the door for the (perhaps irrational) fear of Riku coercing Sora into some sort of graphic sexual act.

"—and I was quite shocked when you called Selphie a knucklehead, Riku."

**"**No, I didn't."

**"**Yes, you _did_." Sora's voice persisted, "You said she was a knucklehead and she should knuckle down or you'd knuckle her fat head. Then you stamped on Wakka's foot."

**"**That was an accident."

**"**No it wasn't."

"But it _could_ have been... I was careful to make sure that it _could_ have been." Or at least Roxas _thought_ that was what Riku had said because the boy's voice had been barely a whisper at best. "By the way Sora, is Roxas okay?"

_That_ made Roxas pause unexpectedly. Was it just him, or did Riku sound genuinely …concerned?

"Uh... well he's no different than usual... Why do you ask?"

Riku wasn't... getting the hots for _him_, was he? Roxas cringed inwardly. No. _No._ It—just—the thought of it made him squeamish. No way, no way, _no way _was he thinking about this.

"Well the chem lab was set on fire, last night..."

"What? You think _Roxas _had something to do with it?"

"You don't?"

"Well, what am _I_ supposed to do about it?"

The snide part of Roxas' brain half-expected Riku to say something like: "You're supposed to do… _this!_" and then tackle Sora to the ground. Groaning, he pressed a hand to his forehead to make the disturbing images go away - they were making him feel even _more_ nauseous. And Riku was _not_ getting the hots for him. He couldn't believe he'd even _thought_ of that. Jesus, they'd both spontaneously combust.

Still... Roxas glared a particularly vicious sidelong glare at Sora's best friend.

"You do look ill, man." Tidus uttered, uselessly at him.

So Tidus was in on it too! Oh, now _this_ was just too much. He was getting _very_ uncomfortable with two pairs of GAY eyes staring at him as if he were a piece of meat…

"Maybe you should… eat something?"

That was it! Sora could fend for himself.

_He_ was going to find that aspirin.

* * *

Roxas scowled deeply at the empty asprin box. Where could he have hidden them? Where _would_ he have hidden them? Cloud wasn't the type to conceal anything in an obvious place, so where wouldn't Roxas look? What spot in the house was he not allowed to go digging through if his life depended on it?

Where was he _afraid_ to look?

He smiled gleefully and snapped his fingers.

_Dad's office._

He peeked around the house first. By the looks of things, his mother had already left to… do whatever she did during the day. There were no signs that she was home. There were no humming noises, no footsteps, and the little compact car had vanished from its usual place in the driveway.

He slithered over to his Dad's office, stealthily popped the door open, and slunk around the corner.

At the very back of Cloud's office, Roxas sifted through a stack of boxes. After laboriously removing the top box and carefully setting it on the floor, he blew an exhausted puff of air out of his lungs.

What did Cloud _keep _in there? A herd of fucking _elephants?_

Roxas stared at the box. He wondered what his dad could have stored in it to make it so heavy. He grinned slyly to himself.

_Only one way to find out…_

The cardboard flaps weren't taped shut and Roxas wondered if he kept them open for a reason. Perhaps he liked to come down to the room and go through it…?

Roxas pried the flaps open and examined the contents of the box. Ten minutes later, he had removed a lot of school memorabilia; a school flag, report cards, a school-spirit wig, fake flowers, old bottles of face-paint, and foam fingers.

Roxas dug even deeper and found an old sun-damaged photograph; in the direct centre of the photograph were two boys; they only looked fourteen or fifteen years old.

This first guy's short, spiky, blonde mess of a hairdo practically lit up the room as if it were his own personal ray of sunshine. The boy's eyes were shut with enthusiasm and a loud, annoying smile graced the lower half of his face. Come to think of it, with that expression he looked _just_ like…

Roxas imagined the boy in the picture with a darker colouration and a few extra inches of hair.

_Sora…?_

Cerulean eyes widened as Roxas realised this was a picture of a teenage Cloud.

Imagine that! And here he'd always thought Sora took after their Uncle Zack…

The blond bemusedly admired the other prominent subject in the picture and was amazed at what he saw.

The other, taller boy's eyes were curled in happy crescents and his lopsided, somewhat awkward smile spread from one ear to the other. He had one arm splayed proudly across the small of the blond's back and his hand pressed the other's hip up against his own. Roxas took a moment to consider how positively _radiant_ he looked.

And, oddly, familiar.

Roxas noticed that this guy's eyes looked a lot like Riku's.

In fact... so did his nose.

And his general facial shape.

And his anatomy.

And... actually, the only real differences between them was the fact that this other guy's hair was longer.

Roxas blinked. Could this be…?

_His _dad and _Sephiroth_?

With one last considering look at the photograph, Roxas couldn't help but notice how out of place the happy little photo was amidst all the dust.

* * *

Autumn always seemed to come suddenly and unpredictably to the Islands. Outside the window the autumn leaves stubbornly refused to change colour.

Roxas leaned back on the edge of the desk, feet braced against the floor. The world was especially quiet in the library that day. His notes were scattered on the large desk's surface. Work sheets had piled up after the last two nights. Deciding that the spare periods given to him were ample opportunity to catch up, he got to work immediately.

After a while however, his motivation began to diminish and boredom began to invade his numbed senses.

"I guess I could go home." He conversed casually with the empty library. "…but that'd defeat the whole point of coming in the first place...", he murmured after a moment of consideration. He snorted when he realised he was speaking to himself, alone in the old library, the only other sound being the flipping of pages from the book he read and the moaning of the early autumn wind outside the window.

Sora had stayed behind after school for Blitzball practice and if Roxas knew Riku (which he did) he knew he'd be skulking around too, trying to manipulate the clueless brunet into doing… _unspeakable _acts by making him feel all _guilty_ with The Voice and all that emo boy hair. And that was the reason he was here, lounging around the in library in case he needed to prevent Riku from jumping his brother in a dark alley somewhere.

A brief, flitting voice of reason suggested that perhaps he was being melodramatic but Roxas rapidly culled it into silence.

"…You can never tell what _that _one is capable of..." Riku could be _scary _sometimes.

In the distance, he heard footsteps ascending the spiral staircase, but wasn't sure where they were headed since the carpeted flooring muffled each step. He tried to watch for anyone's approach but the sparse yellow lights in his wing provided little illumination. Most of the light came from the window, but even that was no help. Only dim grey light streamed through the foggy glass. He checked the ancient clock nailed above a bookshelf. He'd only been there for twenty minutes. All the Blitzers would still be in practice. He wondered who else would still be around so late after school. He picked up his book once more, deciding to ignore the new presence, but paused when the footsteps halted directly behind him. He put down the book, squeezed the bridge of his nose in frustration and sighed.

"Can I help you?" Roxas drawled in a mockingly businesslike manner.

"Y'know, I could report you for that earring." A lazy voice drawled in return. Roxas glimpsed over his shoulder and, sure enough, Axel was leaning nonchalantly against the fire escape his with a smug look on his face. "Never been a big fan of the metal myself, luckily I'm still intact."

Blue eyes slid back to the book as if he was trying to appear casual. "Yes, even I draw the line at piercing arseholes."

Axel's smirk only elongated. "Is this seat empty?"

"Yes," Roxas replied tonelessly. "And this one will be too if you sit down."

Undeterred, Axel moved to the side to stare over Roxas' shoulder at the long, detailed text. "Are you sure this isn't a little too simple for you, blondie?" He asked and pointed at a random word on the page, "I swear, I've known that one since I was five."

The blond scoffed and shut the book on Axel's finger, his head swinging around so that the boys were staring at each other; one with an uncultivated grin and the other an uneasy glare. "What do you want?"

Axel pulled his finger from between the pages. The weight of the book must've hurt, but he didn't so much as flinch. That sort of annoyed him. "I like you. Is that such a crime? Should I be hounded to the ends of the earth, just for likin' you? I like you, and if you can't handle it, you can just, you know, fuck off."

The blond-haired boy raised an eyebrow and stared at Axel before sighing. "You are _so_ irritating…"

"You know what you do with an irritation? You rub it with cream."

"I'd prefer to scratch this one." Roxas growled, his display of cool indifference beginning to wane.

"Won't make it any better."

"And I'll talk with you when you're less—"

"Handsome?"

"No, less—"

"Charmin'?"

"Less… standing. Get out."

Axel's abandoned smirk flitted back among his features and he closed his eyes. "See, I figured it would be fun if we had one o' those friendships where I antagonise you until you realise that you actually like me."

"That's not a friendship," The blond 'tched' in disgust, "That's a _romance novel_."

"An' there's nothin' romance novel about us to begin with," said Axel, his hair rocking forward and veiling his sarcastic eyes. "Hot, dangerous guy from the wrong side of the tracks befriends youthful, innocent girl from the right side?"

"I'm not female." Roxas deadpanned.

Axel waved his hand absently. "Details, details." He said, maintaining a suave indifference to the consequent heated stare and sporadic arsenal of wadded papers hurled at him.

During their encounters Axel never deviated from his showcase of infantile, imperturbable manners, but Roxas never lost the odd feeling that he was watching over him covertly, knew that if he turned his head suddenly he would surprise in those green eyes a speculative, waiting look; a look of almost terrible patience that Roxas could not understand.

Attempting to transmit his thoughts into more productive endeavors, Roxas turned around to address Axel, who had already taken to staring out of the window with something like mirth in the short silence that had passed between them.

"God this is such a mess," Axel said grinning like a deviant, "It's _fantastic_."

Curious, Roxas wandered over to stand beside Axel, pressing himself against the window plane to get a good look. From the third story window he could see, quite clearly what Axel was peering at - the figures of Sora, Riku and (_thank God_) Kairi walking across the stretch of schoolyard talking animatedly about something completely mundane. The sky was beginning to get a little pinkish around the edges, all in all it was a very pleasant, innocent scene of friendship if one could discount for a moment the way two pairs of doe eyes stared adoringly at Sora's back as he walked just a little in front (and that one pair belonged to a most likely rapist-in-the-making, the snide part of Roxas' mind supplied). Upon meeting each other in their mutual course the eyes retracted hastily, occasionally they would sneak looks when they thought the other wasn't looking.

Roxas felt the urge to throw up. Love was disgusting.

"Oh, this is too good to be true." Axel sniggered, "It's like somethin' off MTV."

"If it was up to Riku it'd be more like Playboy."

"People _like_ Playboy."

Roxas pulled a face. "People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis. You can't trust _people_, Axel."

"So that's your take on it, then? That Riku there only wants him for his body?" Axel leaned against a stripped, wooden column with his arms wound around each other and, with another glance out of the window, added: "Just out of interest - what does 'long term' mean to you?"

"It's an airport car park."

"Monogamy?"

"Nice dark sort of wood, sideboards. Did I pass?"

The taller teen laughed, a clear, authentic sound which echoed off of the school's vaguely brick-looking walls. "Spectacularly."

And then the most disturbing sound Roxas had ever, and probably would ever, hear fluttered up within their hearing range. _Riku laughing_. Roxas almost had a heart attack. The things that boy put himself through to convince Sora he was a _normal _human being…

Axel glanced out of the window to watch the trio once more. "There's only so much happiness in the world and they're hoardin' it all." He murmured quietly. It was more of a scoff than anything else, but for once the boy looked truly pensive.

The blond glanced at him, absently, hands folded behind his head. The redhead was watching them with something outlandish dancing behind his green eyes. Roxas refused to let on that he wondered about what it might've been. "That's not how happiness works." _It completely is. _"And what's _with_ you and Sora anyway? You don't really seem the…_ type_ to associate with people like him."

_Not the type at all_, Roxas thought, taking a moment to look Axel over. He was all soft lines and harsh colour contrasts. Axel looked more like the type to be comfortably nestled in a juvenile detention centre, not donating his spare time like a good samaritan to play basketball with his good-hearted, though idiotic, brother.

Axel smirked slightly. "His choice in friends is deplorable."

Roxas glanced at the outside world once more. Riku had somehow managed to make physical contact by slinging an arm around Sora's shoulders... and was _preserving _said physical contact. "It sure is." The blond agreed, teeming with hatred. Roxas wanted to tear Riku limb from limb and only resisted from launching himself downstairs to do so because a low groan emitted behind him, halting his second-degree thought process.

"Damn it, why now?" Axel rasped.

"What do you mean by…?" The blond turned from the window to find Axel was clutching his shoulder tightly.

The fury inside of Roxas ebbed away as he realised this boy was in some semblance of pain. Roxas could make out the stark blue veins that seemed to glow beneath the boy's wan skin. A small perspiration seemed to be collecting on the pallid hand exposed and his entire body was shaking, as if he was battling with his legs to stay on his feet. Roxas became even more alarmed when the boy suddenly dropped to the ground and grasped his shoulder with both hands.

"Hey—Are you okay?" He questioned, stepping forward hesitantly.

"No! Don't come an—mmm—closer—" His voice was pained and constricted, the intensity of the words that had escaped from him was enough to lapse Roxas into a second bout of silence. He simply stood there dumbly, staring at the quivering back of the formerly-known-ass. It was as though a powerful, horrible pain fired through every artery, vein, capillary, nerve—any place where his blood dwelled burned and bubbled; very joint in his body drenched in sand, so that every convulsion grinded into his bones and ligaments, seemingly wrenching them apart and then shredding them to indistinguishable bits. Shivers racked his body and a frigid sweat leaked down the side of his neck. Every movement seemed to toss his brain into spasms of unbearable pain, every breath rattled and growled in his chest and no relief was to be had.

To say that Roxas was worried didn't give the feeling due justice. He wasn't worried – not close, even, not really.

Roxas was bordering on panic mode.

Abruptly, Axel bolted for the door. He threw it open and was down the hallway before anything stuck, before Roxas could even fully _register_, as though he knew he had to get somewhere, as though under some terrible compulsion to get somewhere, and _fast_.

Eyes wide and his whole demeanour thoroughly spooked, Roxas gave one last befuddled glance at the empty space that Axel had previously occupied, before his brain went into lockdown and he and scampered forward to catch up with him.

Slamming into a turn he dashed down the hall—

... but it was abandoned.

Axel had disappeared.

* * *

This was _not_ cool.

"Grounded." Cloud had announced to an indignant Roxas. "Indefinitely."

**NOT COOL!**

Speaking of cool, Roxas was losing his. He took a few deep breaths to keep calm. This was nothing to lose his head over and Roxas most certainly didn't want to lose his head.

His hair was there.

Roxas liked his hair.

After asking just what the hell indefinitely meant, he had been padlocked inside of his room. There, in the boundaries of his white walls, he had been forced to stalk the door, protesting his confinement with weak shouts of how he knew nothing about the chemistry labs blowing up—what delinquents? Those cigarettes weren't _his_, he had no _idea_ how they got there— it hadn't been _him_ snooping through his office, why didn't he _believe_ him?

Thus, Roxas' severe grounding only lasted for a matter of hours seeing as Cloud could hardly get any work done with him wailing so loudly. But the punishment still remained…he was not allowed to go anywhere after school. He was to report home right after the door's let out.

"How will you know if I've gone anywhere?" He had interrogated the next day at breakfast. "You're not here when I get back."

Cloud didn't even look up from behind the veil of his morning newspaper.

"Believe me. _I'll know_."

Sighing in defeat, the blond lifted his head, only to balance it on his palm.

"It's not so bad, Rox." Sora had reasoned, "I mean, every cloud has a silver lining, right?"

_Yeah, if you ignore the mushroom shaped ones that have a lining of Iridium and Strontium 90._ Roxas thought bitterly.

* * *

**Note: **C'est fini! (For now, anyway).

Hope you enjoyed!

xx


	7. Strange and Beautiful

**Author's Note: **Uh-oh! The workload is mounting and, as a chronic sufferer of procrastination, I churned this out of the ol' imagination (I'm so bad). Annnnyhu, this chapter's theme is 'Strange and Beautiful_'_by Aqualung - such a beautiful song.

Slight **warning**: some language, mind-numbing idiocy and... _wizardry_?

Thanks for reading!

* * *

**Chapter 7:**

Strange and Beautiful

I've been watching your world from afar  
I've been trying to be where you are  
And I've been secretly falling apart  
_—unseen—  
_To me, you're strange and you're beautiful  
You'd be so perfect with me  
_—__but you just can't see__—  
_You turn every head  
...but you don't see me.

* * *

Xion stared at him because that's all she could really do. He made her feel helpless. He made her feel giddy. Her IQ dropped exponentially when he was around. There was absolutely nothing about him that she didn't like. If she could give him his every whim, say, pluck the stars out of the sky and give them to him, she would have. But she knew in her heart of hearts, there was only one person in the world that he would have give him the stars.

That's right. Riku Secretan, her ideal, her dream, her everything, was completely and utterly infatuated with somebody else.

As she watched Riku she kept futilely hoping that he'd lift his eyes away from the desk beside his own and meet hers, that in that one moment he'd see in her eyes all the things she couldn't say, understand that he was worth so much _more_ than to be strung along by her cousin and finally acknowledge _her _feelings…

But he didn't. Riku's eyes remained stubbornly fixated on the sleeping boy. Whenever _he_ was around all Riku saw was _him_, and it wasn't fair, because _he_ didn't _deserve _to have Riku. _He_ didn't appreciate Riku._He _took him for granted. Riku deserved someone better.

Someone like her.

Xion observed balefully as, yet again, Sora was awakened by their irate teacher.

"Mr. Strife, _pay attention_. Now, can you tell me: what is_ this_?" Marluxia roughly jabbed his stick at the _fibula _bone of the model skeleton's anatomy.

Sora blinked drowsily. "It's a pointer."

The brunet sat there awkwardly as the class broke out into a succession of quiet snickers. Marluxia frowned slightly, unsure as to whether his student was mocking him or not.

"No."

He made a few clueless tilting of the head. "Um, is it an extendable probe?"

"_No_, Mr. Strife."

"Un bton?" The brunet offered hopelessly.

"_No._"

Just when he was ready to wilt under the intense gaze their teacher gave, Marluxia's eyes were diverted elsewhere. A hand had raised itself in the back. The pale coloured skin it was attached to made the obviously starched and pressed uniform seem much darker than it really was. It was a good combination, the black on almost-white. Xion found herself staring again. His face and hands were perfect. Everything about him seemed to be... _perfect_.

"Ah, Riku."

"It's a wand, Sir. " The voice was deep. Smooth. "A magical, magical wand."

The room, which had been struggling to contain its mirth, burst into hysterics and a train of chatter rolled around the class, cooing admirably at the pale boy. Xion noticed how Sora, laughing along with everyone else, was too self-absorbed to _thank _his friend for diverting attention and sparing him from Marluxia's wrath. Riku smirked and quietly berated the brunet in regards to his idiocy but Xion saw clearly the affection the older boy held for the brunet.

_All I've ever wanted_, Xion thought resentfully as she watched Sora that day, _was what he always had._

A large crowd had gathered around the Blitzball dome. Xion's ears perked up at a name being called as her eyes found the person addressed.

"Sora! Go for it!"

"Pass it to Sora!"

"Sora! Good luck!"

Beside her, Namine made an impressed sound as he deftly avoided a few adversaries and slammed the ball clean in the centre of the hoop. The noise of applaud erupted in the distance as the pair watched on. It seemed the game had ended and the brunet's team had won. A part of the crowd surged forth boldly and congratulated Sora. Xion caught the easy smile that flashed on his face and the casual grace of a shrug as he was complimented. She watched him welcome the congratulation and adoration he received. She watched as Riku slung an arm around his shoulders.

She found herself biting back a growl as her cousin disappeared into the joyous crowd. Everything, he had _everything_!

Xion watched hopelessly as a crowd seemed to gather around him whenever he arrived. She listened to their conversations, wincing at the howl of laughter flooding the classroom.

"Sora! Come sit with us!"

"Wanna join us for a game, Sora?"

"Sora, if you have a minute can you…"

"Um.. Sora… if you don't have a partner, I could…"

Around Xion, voices and one name swirled about her being, tugging at ugly emotions and thoughts. She covered her ears but to no avail, the voices reached her. She closed her eyes, but saw him clearly, the wildly spiked brown hair and the amazingly bright blue sunny eyes and the smile that rivaled many and seemed to win over most.

She thought back to Sora's treatment of Riku and cursed the boy yet again. She would _never_ take such things for granted.

From the centre of her very being, Xion _hated_ Sora Strife.

* * *

The game against the Besaid Aurochs had been easily won. Some saw him and congratulated him on his performance, Sora grinned sheepishly and waved them off. Blitzball hadn't even been his choice. He'd taken it up to please his mother, who liked to hear that he was participating in 'normal' activities at school (whatever _that_ meant).

Sora didn't usually bother to stay behind for Wakka's lectures - he said the same thing before and after games, so it didn't really matter - and he didn't usually bother to go back to the locker room to change out of his uniform (he might be sticky with sweat but he could deal with that until he got home); but that day, for whatever reason, instead of rushing home as he normally did he stayed behind.

"—every blitzer knows: when you got the ball, you gotta score! When you're playing blitzball you gotta think about blitz and nothing else. If you do, that's when you lose, ya? Anyway, great game guys. Don't forget, the game against the Luca Gooers was cancelled. Any questions? Sora, shoot."

"Wakka, what does Riku like?"

"- the game got... cancelled…. because..._what?_"

"What's Riku's type?"

Wakka paused, looking back at the doorway uncertainly, "Am I in the right locker room?"

"Of course you are! Do I look like a girl to you? Now answer me."

Wakka gawked at him for a second, and then nodded, dazed, and promptly marched over to his locker. "Okay. Riku's type. Well that's easy, he's been telling us all about his type for the last two years. There's been times I was ready to shoot him or myself just to avoid hearing it again, ya?"

Sora assumed that was a joke, Wakka rarely had any violent tendencies. He nonetheless watched him carefully, plopping down on the bench that ran infront their lockers. He placed his hands behind his head in a relaxed fashion and watched his friend rustling through his locker.

"Well, he likes someone who gives him some challenge and who won't hesitate to tell him he's wrong when he's too stubborn to admit it himself, ya?" Sora was busy taking mental notes so he almost missed the sharp look Wakka had given him, almost as if he expected Sora to comment.

"He likes someone who listens to him," The Blitzball captain continued, looking slightly deflated, "Someone who understands what he's saying, even the parts without words. He says his type has got a sense of humour, too."

"That sounds good." said Sora slowly. "But it's still a bit vague."

"Okay, okay, that's not all," Wakka added quickly, "His ideal person would be strong, someone who knows how to handle themselves- …"

"Vague."

"Not finished! He's-...okay, looks. He likes them outgoing and athletic with dark hair and a face that smiles all the time like the sun's coming out, ya? Is _any_ of this ringing a bell?" Wakka was getting a bit red in the face.

"Yes...yes it does." Sora muttered. "I don't understand...why is Riku acting like they're not his type?"

Wakka straightened in his chair, eyes wide and worried. "_What_?"

"You could be describing this person, but Riku didn't seem interested."

"Riku- not- what- who _is_ this person?" Wakka spluttered.

"Selphie." Sora admitted, feeling defeated.

Wakka made a sound that could best be described as '_Nghnh!_' "You really have no_ idea_, do you?"

"No idea about what?" Sora inquired, perplexed, as he followed Wakka into the hallway.

"I mean, _Selphie?_" The captain glanced at him again before shaking his head and laughing. "Surely, you can't be _serious_."

"But I _am_ serious..."Sora frowned, "and don't call me Shirley."

Wakka raised an eyebrow. "But I didn't…" It was obvious he had every intention to make a comment, but instead trailed off his thought with a low chuckle. "Tell me Sora, do you ever feel like you were walking around with a big neon sign that says 'Clueless Twat'?"

"Constantly."

"Okay," Wakka acknowledged, smiling at him in amusement. "Then I'll tell you that the person Riku _really_ likes…."

The brunet leaned forward intently.

"Has bright blue eyes, ya?"

"Bright blue eyes…" Sora blinked. "You mean like mine?"

"_Just_ like your's." Wakka said meaningfully.

"But... Selphie's eyes are green."

"That's right."

Burying his head in his hands Sora shook his head, "I am such a _tit_."

"Yep. Yep."

"You don't have to _agree_ with me!"

* * *

They had been the last ones to receive the magazine that was being passed around their free period on that chilly autumn day. Lifting her head from the magazine's quiz Kairi resolutely declared; "Hufflepuff."

Grinning Sora responded, "Bad luck, I'm in Gryffindor. Not gonna lie, I'm pretty happy about that."

"That makes two of us in Gryffindor." Riku said. "What did you get Pence?"

"Slytherin - I think that's what it was called."

Kairi gasped.

"What? Is that bad?" Pence inquired nervously, "I haven't read the books."

"It's _really_ bad." Kairi confirmed gravely. "It's where the most _evil _witches and wizards come from."

"It's the worst house there is." Sora informed Pence happily.

Pence gnawed his bottom lip in apprehension. "Can I… can I _change_ it?"

"No, you cannot." Riku affirmed, solemnly. "The decision of the Sorting Hat is final."

"But I-I don't want to be in Slytherin." Pence whispered tearfully.

Riku shook his head in dismay. "It's too late for that. Far too late."

Sobbing, Pence ran away from the table. Sora got up to follow him but Riku's hand caught his wrist.

"Careful! Could be a Slytherin trick."

"He's right," Kairi said, "You just never can tell with them."

Sora's eyes widened. "I hadn't thought of that."

"Oh!" Kairi squealed suddenly, "I just remembered - I saw something _really_ interesting on the noticeboard today…"She paused to search the recesses of her school bag. When she retracted her hand a crumpled, yellow piece of paper occupied it. Sora vaguely recognised it as the noticeboard's 'recreational activities' advertisement. "Here take a look."

Riku reached over the table and placed the paper between himself and the brunet. "Wow, that _is_ interesting."

"Yeah," Sora agreed. "_'Cello for Sale'_ and at that price?"

"No. Sora, I think she means this." Riku corrected, pointing to an item at the top left-hand corner of the page. Sora read out loud: "Hamlet: Audtions start Monday." He looked up towards Kairi, edging cautiously; "You don't… have any of those audition forms _on_ you… do you?"

"I do!" she beamed and began rummaging, "Right here in my bag. So, you're trying out, right? You'd be _amazing_ Sora! I remember when you were in Romeo and Juliet. You were the best Juliet I've ever seen! Even though you're a guy!"

"I don't really have a choice in the matter, do I?" Sora concluded as Kairi resurfaced, clutching a packet and an audition form in her hands.

She thrust one towards Sora. "Nope!"

"Got one for me, too?" Riku asked. Sora was momentarily taken back. Riku actually doing drama? Odd. Riku seemed to realise this himself and added; "I mean, theatre's not really my thing, but I guess I can give it a shot."

Kairi rolled her eyes. "Well, of _course_. I was going to _make_ you audition, Riku, whether you wanted to or not. Here." Sora thought he might have imagined the slightest bit of strain in Kairi's smile as she offered him the papers, and the slightest bit of tension in Riku's hand as he took it. But why would...?

Tidus approached their table and folded himself into one of the empty seats. "What's with the paper?"

"Oh, Kairi was just telling us about an interesting thing she read on the noticeboard this morning."

"What? '_Cello For Sale?_'"

Sora nudged Riku. "See?"

"Speaking of interesting, did I see Pence _crying_ a minute ago?"

"Yeah. Poor guy, he's a Slytherin."

"Well, _I_ may be a Gryffindor, but something in my pants is _definitely_ Slytherin." Tidus leered.

Kairi turned, giving the blond, without a doubt, the filthiest look he had ever received. "I don't know whether to be amazed or disgusted how you manage to lower the tone no matter _what_ we're talking about. Who's the unfortunate girl to have your eye _this_ time then?"

"The new brunette in Biology," Tidus informed them wistfully, "Ah, I feel like whomping _my_ willow just _thinking_ about her."

"You mean Yuna Lesca?" Riku smirked. "I heard she gives great headwig."

"Oh Riku, not you too…" Kairi despaired.

Sora smiled impishly. "Maybe you can use your parsel-tongue to open her chamber of secrets?"

Expecting a hit for the joke, he tensed his muscles in preparation, but Kairi only shook her head, placing a hand to her forehead as if she was going to faint.

"I don't know why I even bother…"

* * *

The trio had headed straight to Riku's house after school to get started on their latest school project. It was an odd thing considering that, in all their years of friendship, this had never happened before.

Sora supposed one reason was because the thought of stepping into Sephiroth's abode had always been a somewhat daunting idea (so he had always volunteered his own house). Another reason was that Riku always seemed reluctant to spend any more time in his house than was absolutely necessary - many a time, Sora would find Riku reading on the crooked paopu tree at the end of the pier, or in Merlin's bookstore hours before they had arranged to meet.

A short walk until the trio entered a neighborhood whose street was lined with large houses. It was somewhere on this route that Sora came to a startling revelation - he realised that, besides Sephiroth and creepy old man Xemnas, he didn't know very much about Riku's family at all.

"You never… talk about your family, do you?"

Riku looked surprised at the question. "I never really thought my family would be of any interest to you. Besides, I dislike relatives in general. Mine in particular."

"Eh? Why?"

Riku's face was bewildering as he surveyed the landscape. "Because we're… incompatible."

Manicured lawns, wind chimes and cold iron gates greeted their approach. Riku stopped in front of one of the large houses and entered a code in a keypad, opening the gates. They passed a lush yard and stopped at a large, decorated glass door. Intricate metal work held the glass pieces in shape.

Riku unlocked his front door, opened it uncaringly and beckoned his guests in.

Sora drew his breath in silently, awed at the magnificent yet subtle affluence (Kairi didn't, but Sora supposed she was used to such splendor, coming from a wealthy family herself). Riku left them in the foyer as he headed to the living room. Discreetly, Sora peaked his head inside. Sephiroth was seated on a plush, seashell-toned couch that matched the light décor of the living space.

Riku approached the man but at such a distance that it seemed as if they were strangers.

He nodded curtly. "Father."

Sephiroth's eyes glinted with distain as a sun's ray snuck under the crinkled blind in the corner.

"Riku." was the only thing he said in return.

* * *

"Argh! Thank goodness!" Kairi sighed loudly as she fell back on the couch, papers crunching under her weight. "If I had to go through this textbook one more time…" she began to threaten, but was interrupted when Riku came into the room.

Sora watched Riku enter the upstairs living room bearing snacks and drinks. The pale boy's expression was cold and distant. It would melt away soon, Sora knew. It only happened whenever he had to go downstairs for something. Sephiroth was entertaining below, and Riku would be sidetracked by a guest and questioned about a variety of things every time he ventured down there. He was usually accosted at the bottom of the stairs. The noise was low enough that both Kairi and Sora had heard the polite but dry responses the other boy had given every time, as well as the intrusive questions asked by the guests.

A glass of something blue was placed in front of Sora's textbook, effectively interrupting his wandering thoughts. Taking a sip of the liquid, he watched Riku take his seat on the other corner of the square table and begin to gather the scattered notes. A couple more minutes of silence followed, occasionally broken by the crisp sound of paper and a comment or two between the trio.

"Is that all?" Sora asked eagerly.

"Yes it is. I think we would have had more if you hadn't fallen asleep, though!" Kairi answered, pointed an accusing finger at the brunet.

"I did my part! Besides, if I fell asleep why didn't you wake me?"

"We tried! You almost _kicked_ me!"

Sora scratched his head and took another sip from his glass. "Not my fault…I didn't get enough sleep…" he mumbled into the glass.

"What? How? You can sleep anytime you want!"

"Well, Axel was over 'til really late last night…." Sora faltered in his explanation when he realised Kairi and Riku did not know the details of his relationship with the Djinn. He caught himself, but it proved to be too late. Kairi stared at him curiously. There was silence as Riku seemed to fully absorb the words. Whether bewildered or devious, his true feelings were expertly concealed by a face of blank emotion.

"Riku."

The unexpected voice made the trio jump in surprise. Sora felt Riku's legs stiffen as they looked toward the entryway. Sephiroth stood at the threshold. He stood so silently and still that it made Sora wonder how long he'd been there. He wore a dark, expensive-looking evening suit that shimmered in subtle ways when he moved, and his hair was pulled back, causing his face to look even more severe than usual.

"Miss Heartily's parents are here to pick her up." Sora shivered as Sephiroth's cold eyes passed over them, noting the way his jaw had tightened at the mere sight of Riku. The older boy looked back at his father unflinchingly.

"Oh!" Kairi stood; glad to be able to break the tense atmosphere. She turned and with all the sun she could squeeze into a smile she faced the man. "Thank you Mr. Secretan" she beamed, but the man had already left. They heard him retreating footsteps clicking slightly against the wooden flooring as he took them one at a time.

Kairi frowned at the retreating figure, then smiled as she turned to the boys. "Okay guys...ah...I'll take my copy and I guess I'll see you tomorrow!"

"I'll walk you to the door," Riku said. He got up and they walked downstairs. Sora followed the pair at a distance while Kairi enthusiastically discussed mundane things with Riku.

At the bottom of the stairs, a few guests that were hanging back from the gathering greeted them. Riku and Kairi easily deflected their questions but as Sora descended the banister his way was blocked as he was met by a man. Sora smiled politely. The man returned it with an expectant stare.

"Um... Can I help you?" Sora questioned after several seconds of silence, fighting to keep the pleasant expression on his face from falling. The man made no move to introduce himself, as if Sora knew exactly what he wanted. If anything, the dissatisfaction radiating from the stranger only seemed to increase with the question and his unnerving eyes flicked over his figure disdainfully.

"_You_ must be that Strife boy."

Letting the smile drop fully from his face at the cold tone of voice, Sora took in the other's appearance at the response. He couldn't place if he'd ever met him before. Nothing about the man seemed particularly familiar. But then, Sora didn't like to associate with too many assholes. This guy looked like a big one.

The man turned to glance over his shoulder, Sora's eyes followed to where Riku had now stood frozen in the entryway, eyes flashing and face pale as he saw the two of them conversing.

"Kadaj." Riku said to the man, but his eyes were too focused, too directed; his voice un-characteristically even. _Kadaj… Kadaj…_ where had he heard that name before? Sora stepped back a bit to take them both in; the same light hair, light skin…

"What rare occasion is this that you deem fit to grace us with your presence, Riku?" The man's voice sounded slightly derisive. "Something must have sparked your interest—something important enough to pull you away from…. whatever it is you do up there."

His gaze resembled an eel and Sora almost felt slimy as it slithered over him.

"A particular loud-mouth, perhaps?"

"Riku, you _know_ this guy?" Sora asked, confused, gesturing in the direction of the man with his thumb. Riku tried to reply, but the guy's presence was apparently enough to completely disrupt his verbal skills.

"Of course he does." Kadaj only crossed his arms at Riku's distressed countenance, completing his sentiment with a pitiless look as he took in the other's form. "Don't you, little brother?"

Sora glanced between the Riku and the man's impervious figure. So this was Riku's brother. He vaguely remembered Riku's older brother from his earliest childhood. He remembered him as being a quiet, sullen child who left the house rarely and spoke rarer still. Riku had never spoke of him again after he had moved out of his family home. Whatever their relationship, Sora was sure it was a tumultuous one.

"Alas," Kadaj resumed, "In our happy flock... Riku is what you'd call a "Black Sheep"." The man eyed Riku with immeasurable distaste. "It would seem that you ended up a disappointment, after all. Although I can't be certain that this was not completely the result of staying in the company of the failures you naively call your friends."

Sora frowned at the tone in which "friends" was spoken, and then, realising the insult said; "What the hell is _that_ supposed to mean?"

As if to infuriate him even more, Kadaj looked completely unfazed at the likelihood of a physical altercation, explaining blithely, "It would seem that your poor behaviour and idiocy have been a bad influence on Riku. One can only hope, after seeing you with my own eyes, associating with you is all he has done to shame his family."

Sora fumed. "You don't even know me to call me an idiot!"

The man sneered. "Don't _insult _me by considering yourself _equal_ to _me_- I don't _need_ to know you to make any judgments." The man's insulting leer spread. "I knew it the second I laid my eyes on you. Irresponsible, immature, thickheaded… You—"

"_Don't_ _talk to him like that_."

Sora's righteous anger instantly dissipated into incredulity at the deadly hiss that had definitely _not_ come from his own mouth. He turned, gaping, to face his friends. Kairi's eyes were wide too as they stared at their normally stoic friend. Riku wore a furiously determined look neither had ever seen on him before.

"Don't _ever_ talk to him like that." Riki ground out threateningly. "Come on, Sora, we're leaving." He declared, stalking towards the threshold seconds later.

The brunet clumsily scurried up, and glanced back to where he had been accosted. The artificial lighting cast dark shadows along the frame of Kadaj's jaw and creases of his eyes and lips. The effect of this peculiar lighting made it impossible for Sora to see his expression, though from what he _could_ gather from the snatches of the other's face he could see, he was… surprised.

Upon reaching the threshold, Sora tapped Kairi on the shoulder. He received a questioning gaze for the action. "Hey, can you check me? Do I have anything stuck to me?"

"What?"

"Just look me over. See if I have any asshole magnets glued to me or something."

Riku scoffed, shoving him away from the girl.

"Sora, I think_ you_ are the magnet."

* * *

A wave of chilly winter air assaulted them when they stepped outside.

"Are you sure you don't want a ride?" Kairi asked, "I know my parent's wouldn't mind…" she trailed off when Sora shook his head and dismissed the offer, smiling. She stood waveringly, as if hesitant to leave the two of them alone. "Okay then," She conceded almost reluctantly, "If you're absolutely sure…"

Throwing on her coat and wrapping her scarf around her tiny neck, she waved goodbye and ran to her parents' waiting car. The car's low beam lights blinded the boys momentarily as it drove past. Kairi waved from confines of the dark vehicle and the pair watched until it disappeared from their sight.

"It's freezing. You should have gotten a ride," Riku said turning to the brunet. "I'll walk you."

Sora paused in his steps and looked back to the other boy. "What? No, you have guests."

Riku shrugged, his seemingly callous face an unreadable mask. "They don't care. They won't even notice I'm gone."

"Look, I have no idea what the hell that idiot was talking about back there..." Sora looked up at the dark winter sky and watched his breath mist in the air, "...but there can't be _anything_ disappointing about someone who stands up for their friends like that."

He received only a noncommittal grunt in response.

"So what's his deal?" Sora continued, "Is he always like that?"

Riku frowned, dipping his head down. "Pretty much, but I don't see him that often. He's away at University for most of the year. Same place my Dad went."

"Where's that? Asshole Academy?"

A ghost of a smile touched Riku's lips. "Where else?"

They walked side by side, their breath misted in the air and occasionally one of them would cough when the chilly breeze burned down his lungs. Not used to being so silent, the brunet gave an ostentatious yawn and swayed the muscles of his neck. Every once in a while, he'd peek at Riku, if only to see if he was actually still _alive_, and see the same damn unchanging pose. The only difference the shorter boy could see was in the eyes; there was a newfound warmness to those teal eyes, as if a minute flame had been lit. Of course, it could be the trick of the light since the sun was dipping rather low. Surely, it was a combination of that and the blue-eyed teen's wishful thinking. Most likely, in fact. And yet his smile grew larger at the idea until it actually started to ache a bit.

Yellow light bathed them when hurrying cars whispered by, and they would step farther away from the streets to avoid getting splashed by muddy slush. The scenery gradually changed from manicured lawns and gated houses to tiny convenience stores and smaller dwellings.

Somehow, they ended up in the park.

And somehow —just _somehow_—they had ended up lying on their backs in the aforementioned park with the still moist grass tickling their cheeks. Sora's schoolbag was nowhere in sight but for some reason he couldn't quite bring himself to care.

Lavender clouds veiled the stars and moon and the only light was that of a bright streetlamp in the foreground. The world seemed drowsy and slow. It reminded Sora of his mother when she came home from a double-shift at the flower shop. She would find her fuzziest, warmest pair of pajamas and settle in front of the couch with a blanket draped over his legs. Sometimes, Sora would join her and they'd watch dumb sitcoms and laugh at the idiotic puns, repeating them over and over until they drove each other crazy.

"Have you…?" Riku's voice caught the brunet off guard as he turned back to him, catching his gaze. "Have you ever lost someone?"

The question came completely out of the blue, and yet Sora was not fazed by it - everything just seemed so _simple_ right then.

"Yes." He answered and then bit his lip, taking a moment to think of how best to approach his bizarre life-story. "Not in the ordinary sense, I mean, they didn't _die_ or anything... but sometimes..." Exhaling loudly, he ran a rough hand through his hair. "But sometimes they'd disappear out of my life so _completely_ that it almost felt as if..."

_. . . as if he was really gone._

It was a terrible thought, but one that Sora found circling his mind more and more often.

___(The more he wondered where Riku was, the more uneasy he felt._

_____He knew_ that the bastard was in his home

___—that knowledge was one of the few things keeping him together._

_Previously, a small piece of him had placed Riku on the same level as him, no matter how different their outward styles had seemed to be - he knew more about Riku than anyone else and he took pride in the knowledge._

_Who had he been kidding all these years?_

_Their similarities were so minimal, they might as well be a different species altogether; two conflicting species that couldn't coexist with each other._

_In many ways, not seeing Riku was a relief. Sora wasn't sure of what to say to when they finally ran into each other anymore._

_I'm sorry?_

_I missed you?)_

Before continuing, Sora regarded Riku for a moment, and smiled mirthlessly at his expression. He looked so… young, so... _helpless_. His features, usually held and checked so carefully, so often set in a crafted mask that disguised every weakness, every flaw, seemed so different that he barely recognised his face. The tension and calculation in his brow no longer remained. He seemed more handsome now, more at peace with the world, than Sora had ever remembered seeing him.

"You know, I can't see his face anymore." Sora said flatly. "I just… I try _—_I _try__—_ but whenever I do I can only remember… I can only remember the _last _expression he ever showed me."

_(__"… go away."_

_Sora sighed quietly and ploughed on, feigning deafness. "Whaaaaat?"_

_"**Leave.**"_

_Sora leaned back and pursed his lips. "Open up or I'll come in the bad way."_

_He leant his forehead on the door, measuring out the seconds of Riku's silence._

_—Heavy, and suffocating, and fucking **exhausting**—)_

Riku stared at the brunet, at the blue of his eyes swimming in a volatile mix of anger and hurt.

"He looked so… _betrayed_." Sora continued, his eyes narrowing as if in haunting recollection,"As if I had _deceived_ him somehow, as if it were _my_ fault. His eyes... They pierced me. They branded me: _Traitor._ _Coward. _They blamed_ me_."

Riku only dared to watch in silence until the brunet sighed after a moment of unsettling tension.

"But the truth is, I _can_ remember his face. I can remember _everything_."

_("I'm** fed up** with **you**!" __Riku's voice cracked with the force of his raging cry. "Everything is about** you**, and you want to make it even **more** about you, and . . . I'm sick and tired of this crap!"_

_Sora's fists shook as he balled them. "You think **you're** the only one who's tired? How do you think I feel, fucker?"_

___Riku laughed suddenly, a dark, bitter sound. ______There was something unsteady in his smirk._

_"Satisfied?"__)_

"I just..."

_("Riku-"_

___To his utter humiliation, Sora realised he was on the verge of tears._

_"__Please?_"_)_

"I just... don't want to."

Riku spoke after a minute, his voice soft and even in the darkness.

"But you don't _have_ to. You don't have to remember all the time."

Sora looked over at him and at the utter blankness of the other's pale features, Sora found that he felt the most unexpected sensation.

_Relief_.

No appeasing motions or mocking words, Riku had never once interrupted when Sora was speaking; the pale teen listened to him from start to finish with not even a snicker. Riku had allowed him to speak freely, without judgment or pity.

…. admittedly, some part of Sora _wanted_ a comforting arm, a sympathetic voice with a string of nice words, but those acts were too temporary. Experience had told him these actions, while done with true heart at the time, easily faded away. His friends and family had always tried to soothe and protect him (Kairi had always enthusiastically tried to prove that nothing had changed at all, and asked him about Riku whenever they met, Roxas _never_ touched that topic in Sora's presence, but he did try to keep him occupied in his own way); and though well meaning, those actions were useless, even damaging. It made him feel weak and a burden to those he wished to cherish and protect. It was comparable to having a bullet wound and everyone trying to find a large enough bandage to help him stop the bleeding.

And among those frantic people, a single jerk would say to him: "Go to the hospital, dumbass."

Sora almost felt like laughing at his train of thought: Riku -that arrogant, smug _asshole_- was the only one who truly had any comprehension of who he really was, inside and out.

_—Always** berating** him on personal flaws. Always **fighting** him. Always **pushing** him to the edge of his sanity. And always..._

..._Always_ **_there_**.

He allowed a minute to pass, to let this thought sink in. To allow himself to fully grasp the edges of something he felt too important to slip away. By the way he was sounding, it was if he considered Riku to be the most important person in his life.

After a few moments, Sora turned to Riku.

"Have you ever lost someone?" He asked softly.

"My mother." Riku said, quietly.

"Were you close?"

Riku ran a rough hand through his hair. "No. But Kadaj was. He was seven when she died."

"Do you… remember her face?" He spoke after a minute, his voice soft and even in the darkness.

"Her face?" Riku repeated, the crease between his brow deepening in concentration, "I can't say I remember all that much about my mother." He admitted, "She died as I was born. I don't remember her face from any memory of my own, but I've seen pictures of her…" Closing his eyes, he seemed to form the image within his mind. "At least, I remember she was very beautiful. She had… long, wavy hair… and her eyes were this rare blue-green colour."

"Like yours."

Riku's eyes opened to find Sora's gaze intent on him.

"Yes."

Something swelled between them briefly; something that, like so many countless other times, made Sora shiver. Before he could ask himself what it was, Riku looked away again, eyes indecipherably vacant.

"After she died, my father locked himself in his library for three days. When he came out, they assumed he'd been writing letters, sorting out the will… but it turned out he hadn't done any of that. He'd just sat, and waited for somebody to force their way in and tell him it was all some kind of… joke. For weeks, he couldn't bear to look at me." Here, Riku released a short, self-derisive laugh, "Who am I kidding? - he _still_ can't."

He laughed bitterly, "They blame _me_, you know. My entire family thinks it was my fault."

Sora frowned.

"But… it wasn't." He said, simply. "It _wasn't_ your fault, Riku."

Ever so slowly Riku turned his face to stare into Sora's eyes. It was then that the brunet realised just how _small_ the span was between their faces. He could almost feel the heat sliding off Riku's cheek. The dim glow of the streetlight highlighted the cut of his jaw, the shape of his slightly parted lips. Riku shook his head and turned away. Sora ignored the disappointment that speared through him at the loss of the gaze.

"You know... I don't even know why I'm telling you all of this." Riku spoke softly, "I never talk about it. I've never…" He stopped himself, before he appeared to decide upon something in his mind. "I guess… the only reason I _am _saying this to you is because…" He looked rather hesitant, his lips folding in as if trying to fortify his next sentence. "…because, to me, Sora, you're—"

_(Then I'll tell you that the person Riku really likes….)_

___(...has bright blue eyes...)_

Their faces were _so very close_ and the night felt so simple and easy to maintain—nothing held deeper meanings; things were plain and practical. The streetlamp's light that was snagged on the side of Riku's face —which was _so_ close— seemed to glow and emit soft warmth.

_(...you mean...)_

—Their faces were _so very close__—_

___(... like mine?)_  


"SORA!" A voice bellowed behind him somewhere.

Instantly, Sora's eyes snapped open and he was momentarily startled by the very _tiny_ distance between his lips and Riku's. He sat up and glanced around. On the very edge of the desolate, dark park, Roxas stood rigidly, his hand clasped around the handle of his missing schoolbag, which appeared from the distance, miraculously dry.

Sora stood up, quivering slightly as the sodden shirt of his school uniform stuck defiantly to his back. Behind him, Riku drew up as well.

"Roxas," said Riku and, with a barely perceptible nod: "Axel."

Sora's eyes snapped to previously unnoticed figure, standing a little behind Roxas. Axel's wan lips crawled further upwards.

"Yo."

"What are you doing here?" Sora asked, striding forward to peer at him in the light.

"Dad sent us to find you when you didn't come home by curfew." Roxas declared resolutely, his eyes set firmly on Sora.

The two simply gaped at one another until the blond severed the contact by glancing over his shoulder at Riku. His eyes narrowed as they slowly traced their way back to him. Sora felt like a child caught in the middle of doing something very naughty and his cheeks burned.

"Come on, you don't want Aerith to worry, do you?" Roxas spun on his heels and marched off down the street.

Sora spared a tentative, fleeting look back at Riku. He seemed almost ethereal in the soft, white glow of the street light behind him, his eyes glinting and reflecting something completely unreadable.

___Eyes just like mine, huh?_

Sora scurried quickly to catch up with Roxas.

* * *

The delectable scent of maple syrup and the muggy heat emanating off the stove composed a stuffy, but relaxing atmosphere of the small house. The frying pan emitted delicious crackling noises as Aerith tenderly tossed the pancake sizzling inside into the air and caught it again.

"You two seem to know each other pretty well." Sora stated absently across the dining table. He threw a quick, suspicious glance at the smirking Djinn. "Are you... friends?"

Axel nodded, "We've become _very_ good friends. I guess you could say we're sorta like…you and Riku."

"No." A twitch brewed beneath Roxas' right eye. "Not as... _close_ as they are."

"But only by a little." Axel added. This earned him a sharp glare from the blond. "Why, I'd go to the end of the _world_ for you." Axel's voice positively _swelled_ with artificiality, as if reciting fluffy things he had read inside of greeting cards.

"But would you _stay_ there?" The blond growled, "Look. You and me _aren't_ an item. Never have been, never will be." Roxas straightened up, a disgustingly smug look on his face. "So what do you think of _that_?"

"I."

"What?"

"You and _I _are not an item, not you and me."

There was a slow exhale from the blond teen as his eyes narrowed murderously at the taller boy. In response to this, Axel's smug grin grew exponentially - no other response could have rile the blond as much as that infuriating smirk did. Roxas had a ghastly insult prepared on his tongue but was unfortunately interrupted by Aerith.

"Oh that's right," She declared absently. "That girl who lives off the harbour, she's not your friend, is she?"

"You mean Selphie? Sure, she is." Sora confirmed around a mouthful of grape pancake.

"Oh dear..." His mother drew in a deep breath, as if unsure of how to proceed. "Her father came into the flower shop today. He ordered a huge bouquet. Said they were get well flowers for his daughter. Apparently, she's in the hospital."

"Selphie's in the hospital?" Sora's stomach sank. "What's wrong with her?"

Aerith's distressed gaze trailed to the linoleum floor. Her voice was soft and sad. "They don't really know. She just won't wake up."

—Suddenly, his eyes were pulled up by an outside force to rest on Axel. There was an intense thought bulging behind those green eyes, a message that could not be communicated orally. As ever, they glistened with secrets but, for whatever reason, in that one _instant_, the meticulous ice seemed to melt and, for the very first time, Sora was able translate the un-inked words boiling inside the Djinn's brain.

The pancake in his stomach gurgled threateningly.

…_this has something to do with us._

* * *

Spoooooooky-shiiiiiiiit!

**Incredibly-unneeded-unloved-author's-note:**

Yeah, so, 6,000+ words in an afternoon, wahey! Now if only I had the motivation to do that in assignments my academic life would be a helluva lot easier... *sighs*

Can I believest mine eyes? Sora/Riku _progression_? Didn't expect this chapter to get so... serious, but I figured there had to be _some_ reason for Riku's indecision, right? I mean, nobody's _that_ scared of getting rejected. Besides, he needs angst. It's what Riku does best. The next chapter will be a whole lot more fun-filled. A return to form, one might say.

Oh, and I saw the new Harry Potter and loved it. Does it show? Haha.

If you leave me a lengthy, thick review…I will love you! CRAP I'm 30 minutes late. Gotta go!

Mwah x


	8. 2:1

**Author's Note: **In the immortal words of Alice Cooper: _SCHOOL'S OUT FOR THE SUMMER!_ I thought the day would never come! This chapter is significantly shorter than the other chapters, but I felt like adding some of my other 'sketches', if you will, would just seem more irrelevant and random (than usual) ^_^

This chapter's theme is '2:1' by Elastica - which is just so _amaze_.

Slight **warning**: uhm... nothing other than idiotic ramblings and slightly depressing (in my eyes anyway - I'm a sensitive soul) content.

Thanks for reading!

* * *

**Chapter 8**

2:1

Keeping a brave face in circumstances  
Is impossible  
Cannot describe...  
_—So many decisions—_  
It's impossible..._  
_To know which is the proper order  
_—The best position—  
_To be in.

* * *

Sometimes, Kairi hated being the observant one.

Although, truly, it was nice to be depended on, to know that she would be needed, would always be turned to when the situation got complicated, she could see through everything. She saw things others did not. She could see past the noticeable and discover the truth. And no matter how much she kept telling herself she wasn't seeing everything because she was too emotionally attached, she just couldn't deny the evidence.

—and Sora is shouting, "How could you possibly make a crystal skull except by some type of _magic_? Huh, Riku?"

**"**In a factory...from glass."

"Oh_ sure_. C'mon! Could _you_ make that?"

"No."

"Could ANYONE?"

"Yes."

"I need you to tell me that you believe in crystal skulls."

"…please don't make me believe in them, Sora."

"Do._you_.**_believe_**?"

"I… believe in crystal skulls."

"And _what_ do you believe about them?"

Riku ground his teeth. "I believe that they were crafted by the ancient inhabitants of Atlantis and that they're powerful centres of healing."

"There, that wasn't so hard, was it?"

"Tch."

Sora made a face. "That sound. Ever tell you how much it pisses me off?"

Kairi could keep telling herself that Sora's yelling and bumbling were his true self and not an act. But she knew that when he yelled, "Riku! You asshole!", like that, that it wasn't from anger or hatred towards the other; it was from his own frustration, a self-directed anger that hadn't been there before.

His yelling meant that he was _with_ Riku.

"… Sora, are you aiming for the bulls-eye?"

**"**Yeah, 'course I am, it's the best thing on the board!"

**"**No, it isn't."

**"**Riku, just look at it. It's tiny, it's red, it's right in the bloody middle. 'Course it's the best thing on the board!"

"You're such an _idiot_."

And she knew that Riku's comments weren't from contempt. They were now from the same frustration Sora had and…

"…so I'm thinking about getting an Adamantium helmet."

"Yeah? That's the stuff the Wolverine skeleton's made out of, isn't it?" Riku noted.

"Yep. Hardest metal in the world."

"And, sadly of course, a fictional metal. So that would _probably_ reduce its effectiveness in a crash-style scenario." Although the expression on Riku's face never changes, Kairi is _sure_ she sees something in his eyes, something that dances and twirls and goes '_hahah I win'._

They were the first friends she had made when her family had moved to the insular community of the Islands. Ever since, they had been her best friends and she was truly grateful for that, but sometimes—

"Hey, guys…"

"I mean, come on Sora - you'd be the first to admit that you're not the most rational thinker."

**"**No I wouldn't!"

"You still don't understand what happens in Ocean's Eleven."

**"**It's a complicated film."

"It_ really _isn't."

"_Guys._"

"Huh? Sorry, what was that, Kairi?"

—But sometimes she feel a little like an intruder, like someone who lived on the periphery. They had a bond that she couldn't begin to partake of.

—_And that seclusion hurt more than anything else_—

So she kept looking for anything that would tell her she was wrong; something that would completely reverse everything. But Kairi hated herself for searching because she knew that she wouldn't find anything; that she couldn't even look Riku in the eyes, knowing that in them she'd see something that she couldn't hide from. While other girls were still lost in their fantasies and daydreams, wondering if there was ever a chance, she knew the truth. Not only because she saw the two of them every day, but because she was able to see past Riku's facade.

She could see past the rivalry and see what the intense glares really meant.

Even when Sora and Riku couldn't.

"Hey, Kairi?" Sora ventured, staring at her with his large, blue eyes.

—_And she can't help but notice that Riku's gaze is still on Sora, never moving for a moment_—

"Oh, sorry - I just wanted to say that we should probably be heading back pretty soon…"

"Ahhhh, ok." Sora answered brightly. "How about we stay over at mine tonight? My parents took another one of their weekend trips to Hawaii. For some reason Roxas keeps saying they've gone to Las Vegas though..."

Sometimes Kairi felt like nothing more than an interruption. And that's something she can't ignore, no matter how hard she tried. So she said things and did things to get their attention, to make sure that they don't leave her behind...

"We'll miss dinner if we don't go now."

—and she can't help but feel satisfied when Sora proves she hasn't been forgotten.

"Nooo! I'm not missing dinner this time. Let's go, Riku!"

"It was your own fault last time, idiot. Don't blame me for your mistakes."

"Don't call me that, you bastard!"

"Then stop _being_ one."

It's at times like these that Kairi can allow herself to forget; when they bicker so violently, she can almost imagine that everything she's seen, heard and concluded isn't the truth. So Kairi allowed herself to slip back into a familiarity of actions long since forgotten, their meanings changing some obscure time back. And as she walked back with them, she couldn't help but let herself glance at Sora with hopes that he'd be looking at her, even if it's for a moment.

"So did you hear about crazy old Maleficient? Y'know, if _I_ was getting sectioned, I'd put up more of a fight."

"Downside: Could get lobotimised." Riku said blandly.

"If you guys ever try to section me, know that you will have crossed a line and I will section YOU, so help me..." But as Sora talks, Kairi is able to notice how Riku's eyes watch him more closely. There's also something in that gaze that sends shivers down her spine. So she looked away, suddenly annoyed.

Why should Riku get everything she wanted? How could someone like him…?

Riku's always there, always there

—_always Riku and Sora and never her_—

"Look guys, you've had you're fun sectioning today!" She snapped, finally losing the tenuous grasp on her temper. As they finally stop looking at each other, the moment broken by her harsh tone, she knew that wasn't the truth. No matter what happens, Riku will always be there for Sora _—and Sora..._ "There's going to be no more sectioning today. Jeez…can't we just make it back in peace for once?"

Her words are harsh and bitter, but she couldn't help it.

_—he was going to take everything. Without even trying, or thinking, he was smashing her hopes and dreams—_

So she can't help but feel resentful sometimes...

(There must have been a noticeable reaction on her features, because Riku turned to her with a concerned; "… Kairi?")

... even if he did deserve it more than her.

Riku's always there for Sora, but she knows it's because she's hardly ever in the sort of trouble Sora gets in and that if she ever was, Riku would be there for _her_ too. It's simply the fact that Sora gets in so much trouble…

But, deep down, she _knew_.

_—_she knew how they just _completed_ each other. That was them. _More_ than just the best of friends. That was the kind of _connection_ they had.

_—Who wouldn't envy that?—_

It's because she can't accept it that she pushes it away and ignores it. Because she didn't want to give up the dream she'd held on to for so long. She didn't want to have to grow up. Instead, she watched Riku's eyes, hoping that that strange, dark look to them will disappear when he watches Sora.

_—just wasn't ready to face reality—_

"Home sweet home! Hey, _hey -_ Roxas! Would you ever try to section me?"

"...no."

"Wow, _that_ sounded convincing."

Kairi had spent so much time thinking about Sora, she inevitably had to think about Riku. It was obvious from the beginning they both played an important part in each other's lives – it was just a question of _how_ important. And as she watched him more and more, trying to figure out how to gain his acknowledgement, she'd watched Riku more and more as well.

Because they're always together.

"Hey, hey! Where's dinner?"

Because they're always very close together. And she refused to notice how they both lean against each other more than the wall; didn't like noticing how their knees were pressed so close together. But she could attribute that to how close they were sitting. It was always just an _accident_.

_—_and it doesn't mean a thing that they never correct it.

"Can't you wait?"

"I'm hungry! Why should I be forced to wait? Ow! What was that for, asshole!"

"Stop being a nuisance."

Even that act of violence now appears as something different. It doesn't seem as harsh as it used to be and she knew this because Sora didn't use both hands to cover his head. Just one.

The worst thing about going back over all the memories, the evidence, is that she wished she could manipulate it. Change how she remembered it so that it was _anyone_ he was looking at now and not Sora

_—just as long as he's not looking at **Sora**—_

"Ahh! It was great, Kairi. Can you believe that a teacher could fall for such a simple trick? … but Marluxia said if he catches us using the staff room phone line again our reward will be in Devon."

"Devon?"

Sora stared at her for a moment, eyes glazed with confusion. "Oh, no, sorry. It's heaven isn't it? Yeah, that's right. I used to get them confused as a kid. You know, when people die, they go to Devon."

Kairi found herself stifling the stirrings of a smile. "That's funny."

"Well, not really, no. Ruined my summer holidays – I thought my whole family was dead."

* * *

"He's so different."

"Sora?" Riku guessed quietly, peering into Kairi's face. Pulling her gaze to his, he was unprepared for the dim quality that her eyes had adopted.

She nodded and continued in a passive voice, "I know it's stupid but... I just thought he'd always be the same. I mean I _knew_ he wouldn't be the person forever and I expected changes, I really did. But…" Kairi trailed away at a loss.

"You didn't think they'd be so…sudden?" Riku supplied. He understood how Kairi felt.

It was true, there was just something... _different_ about him. Sora wasn't the same, even though he was trying to hide it. Nobody could accuse Sora of being overtly mature but... there was definitely something troubling about the way the brunet appeared now; somewhat worn and nursing a world of anger, tired and yet unable to give up. Now, every so often. Sora would laugh, but it was the sort of laugh that had nothing to do with amusement or joy and everything to do with disbelief and knowing more than most knew. On occasion, Riku would be thrown off by the sudden darkening of Sora's eyes. It was like staring into a pool of melted Lapis lazuli. No way out. Only an endless ocean of opaque, deep blue thought.

Sometimes those eyes held an almost... aging quality.

"Hey, Riku..."

He looked up at his name to see that Kairi was suddenly filled with a sort of nervous energy. Her eyes refused to stay focused on any one point at a time and instead danced around Riku's face nervously.

Kairi looked at him through the curtain of her long lashes. She plucked another strand from the carpet and let out an irritated breath.

"You like him, don't you?"

Riku drew in a sharp breath, aching to fill his lungs with the oxygen Kairi had effectively knocked out of him.

_She knew._

Kairi averted her gaze, lifting and dropping her shoulders in a resigned shrug as a soft breeze from the AC tousled her hair fondly and brought a heartrending smile to her lips.

_She knew._

The delicate skin of her throat bobbed as the girl drew in shuddering breath.

He didn't know what to do. He had no idea how to deal with his _own _emotions let alone those of his friends.

"...you..."

Riku tried not to look at Kairi - tried not to even _think _about Sora because - fuck - Kairi _knew_.

"...really _like_ Sora, don't you?"

He opened his mouth and drew in another breath

_—screaming_ in the silence with the _need_ to speak_—_

and then clamped it shut.

The red-haired girl finally composed herself with a heavy sigh and dared a confused glance at Riku. Her eyes clenched closed and Riku wanted so badly to know what was going through her mind because he'd betrayed her. She was the one supposed to love Sora - had been since _forever - _and Riku knew that he'd broken her heart even if she wasn't showing the hurt.

Riku sighed, avoiding her eyes. There was no way to get out of this now… if he said no, he'd be lying. In a way, if he _didn't_ answer, it would be a yes by default. So…

"What are you talking about, Kai? You think, because I don't chase girls around like some kind of rabid dog in heat, that I'm automatically queer?" He said completed dryly.

Kairi's voice was like a knife through the tension in the air. "I'd appreciate if you didn't insult my intelligence." Her eyes slowly opened, staring fixatedly out of the window. A vacant glaze in her eyes, she turned to him after a pregnant pause and asked, with a stretched smile that only _just_ looked believable:

"Are you… together?"

Riku felt anxiety bubble in his stomach - felt the rejection warm and acidic in his throat - and shook his head. It didn't matter though, because Riku instantly knew that his response meant nothing because, regardless, he was sure he'd hurt Kairi worse than any deliberate malice ever could.

_—Because she knew._

"…sorry."

He had no idea what else to say.

"Don't be dumb, don't apologise." Kairi waved a hand, breaking into an uncomfortable laugh. Riku forced his own smile and tried to quell the feeling of disgust welling within him. Of course she would be uncomfortable with him. He had just _admitted_ to wanting the boy she'd been in love with since forever. He had just admitted to wanting her future and trying to _take it away_.

He wanted to take it back. He wanted to snort and mock her for taking it seriously, to tell her it was just a bad attempt at a joke and sweep it all beneath the carpet. It would be so much easier… then they could snipe at each other for a while and go home, like nothing had ever happened. It would be so much less painful.

But it would be too much like lying.

"…I bet you wish I was anyone but me right now," Riku observed, feeling his tone war between irony and bitterness.

"Why?" Kairi blinked at him, then after a pause. She was trying to calm him down, he could tell. "Personally, I think it's pretty cool knowing the guy all the girls want likes the guy all the girls hate."

Riku gave his friend a sidelong glance. Kairi's fingers were grasping the hem of her dress and she toyed with the fabric anxiously.

Was he going to accept her lie for his own sake?

Without even thinking, he knew the answer to that question, because he _needed_ this to be his own little truth. And she had given it to him.

Maybe even to herself.

And when Kairi said, "Still friends?" Riku gave a curt nod and he could almost convince himself that the smile didn't feel strained.

When Sora walked in with a grin on his face there was a moment where the trio stared at each other awkwardly and Riku raised an eyebrow. Sora blinked, confused and looked around, trying to think of something to break the awkward silence…

Then...

Sora forced a laugh and smacked his head in good humour.

"Oh damn it, I forgot the coffee!"

* * *

As soon as the trio prepared to ascend the stairs later that night, Roxas approached Kairi.

"Are you really... actually... going to get _in_ the bed?"

Kairi blinked. "Yeah."

"Right. Umm, better take these." Roxas held out a bunch of bananas.

"Oh, I'm not hungry, but thanks."

"No it's not for you." There was an uncharacteristic hesitation wherein Roxas' blue eyes bore onto Kairi's violet. "Just... chuck them under the bed."

"_What...?_ What's under the bed?"

"Dunno." Roxas admitted, "We just call it 'The Thing'."

* * *

Sora's room had a distinctly spicy smell, Riku noted. It was cool that night and the pile of green blankets in the corner marked where Kairi was. Riku's breath caught as he saw her lying on her back in her sleeping bag, one hand over her stomach protectively and a serene expression on her face.

The boy sat next to her and swallowed, his eyes wincing against the emotion that was welling within them. He'd never been one to cry and he doubted he would start now, but the sensation of his cheeks heating accompanied his prevailing emotion of guilt.

"I'm sorry," he whispered to her and placed a hand on her forehead, pushing her hair from her face. "I'm your best friend. I shouldn't be hurting you. Not like this."

The soft thin strands of her hair ran through his fingers like sand. His hand slowly made its way to her cheek, which he cupped delicately as he told her, "I'll never care for him more than our friendship. I don't think I can. I'd be a fool to give you up so I can take him away from you."

_And I know you'd pretend you're fine with this … but the look on your face yesterday…_

"You don't need to hide from me, Kairi. Besides, I know you too well for that to work. Just like you know me too well…" He paused; contemplated what he'd just said and stared at her. "I guess that means you know how badly I've fallen for him, huh?"

The normally happy countenance that was Riku's face crumpled and he ran his free hand through his hair wearily.

_"I'm so sorry."_

* * *

Kairi waited in silence until she heard a shuffle and glanced over to see Riku's figure settled back in his sleeping bag.

_"I know." _She whispered softly.

* * *

Sora was sleeping. And he didn't look like an angel. The sun wasn't shining through his window and illuminating his golden-brown hair like a halo. And his hair wasn't a head of soft, golden-brown hair that just begged to be touched so much as an overwhelmingly obnoxious tangled _mess_.

But that was okay because it suited him.

Though, in all honesty, Sora's personality was obnoxious enough on its own.

Sora was sleeping. It would have been nice if there had been a soft smile on his face, or some sort of serene expression at least. But there wasn't. There was only a thumb in his mouth and a viscous strand of saliva peeking out from the corner of his lips.

All in all it wasn't a pretty sight.

But that was okay, because Sora was sleeping.

And so Riku could finally say the one thing he'd been meaning to tell his friend for quite some time.

"Because to me, Sora...

you're everything."

His only answer was a blissful snoring.

* * *

**A/N**: That last line is so cheesy! But I'm feeling lazy so sue me =P

Hah, _soooo_ disjointed. I'm literally the worst editor ever!

I had SERIOUS blockage when it came to writing the main vein of the story, so I decided to take a different character perspective. Originally it was supposed to be from Riku's perspective, but as you know, ended up as centred on the Kairi/Riku friendship. Pretty damn depressing, right? But I hope their situation is relatable/understandable.

Reviews always appreciated, similarly, any sort of ideas will be hungrily devoured.

Previous suggestions really gave me a lot of ideas for future plots, so I'd like to thank** M** and **Azkateelia.**

And to** thesurreal:** I'm so very flattered!

Thanks for reading guys x


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